Thunderbird Magazine, Volume 53, Number 2 2000

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THUNDERBIRD. THE AMERICAN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT • VOLUME 53. NUMBER 2. 2000
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Technology Shrinks our World
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School Defines Branding Strategy
It has been one of the world's best kept secrets-small,
unknown, all but buried in the arid southwestern United States.
Beginning in 1946, thousands have come, learned, and left,
nomadically crisscrossing the globe and nearly every major indus­try.
All along the way, they find and befriend talented young pe0-
ple, then all but whisper: "Hey, why don't you go to Thunderbird."
Thunderbird has never before embarked on a worldwide market-ing
campaign, let alone leveraged its alumni base or formed a full­fledged
branding strategy. Now, all that is changing.
Thunderbird has long been recognized as the top-ranked international business school in the
United States, and one of the best in the whole world. But in recent years, Thunderbird's
brand equity has faced the threat of erosion in the wake of offerings by larger, university­based
business schools touting their uglobalness."
"Rapid globalization of industries and the advent of ecommerce has dramatically changed
the education field," said Roy A. Herberger, Jr. president of Thunderbird. "Today, there are, lit­erally,
hundreds of other schools out there on the Web saying, 'We're global and we're the
best at something: It was time to stand up and tell the world, 'We are Thunderbird and this is
exactly who and what we are:"
"T-birds are so mobile and successful that the outside world often perceives
Thunderbird as being right up there with the 'big boys' in terms of brand perception,"
said John Willie, the executive-in-residence responsible for the revitalization of
Thunderbird's brand. "But the truth is, our revenue is incredibly low compared to the
competitive company we keep. So we can't plaster the world with high-priced ads;
we have to out-innovate the competition by utilizing the alumni assets-and all
those traits T-birds are famous for."
And yet. the School has this month begun strategically placing ads similar to the
mock-up at the left, which feature real T-birds in world settings and highlight our lan­guage,
cultural and business emphasis. The ads are meant to convey to the world the
core idea of what it really means to be a T-bird. That message is encapsulated by the
brand strategy Willie and a team of students came up with after conducting in-depth
market research with alumni, students, faculty, and non-Thunderbird executives.
The overall marketing brand strategy is "Lifelong Global Positioning." To illustrate
this concept. Willie pointed out the way in which global positioning systems [GPS]
utilize satellites to pinpoint a spot on the earth's surface .
"It takes at least three satellites to locate any point on the Earth," said Willie. He
likens Thunderbird's offerings to three satellites, representing information, knowl­edge
and the Thunderbird alumni network.
·Put all three together, and we can help our customers with their lifelong learning
needs throughout their lifetimes; said Willie .
The centerpiece of Thunderbird Lifelong Global Positioning will be the
school's web site: http://www.t-bird.edu, which is now being ::o'l>
redesigned to be compatible with our brand strategy. 0
·Our customers will be able to tap into Thunderbird's global network ')
to fulfill nearly every business need-whenever they need it- ~~
throughout their careers, and from anywhere c.,
in the world," said Willie. ~
• •• • •
Lindsey Michaels
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THUNDERBIRD. THE AMERICAN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT • VOLUME 53. NUMBER 2. 2000
-OVER STORIES
4 It's an eWORLD After All
Although Walt Disney's famous 'small
world' phrase was mostly right, it has
turned out to be more of an 'eworld'
after all.
12 Global Supply Chains
Go Virtual
Thunderbird's Dr. William E. Youngdahl
shows how virtual supply chains are
breaking time and space conventions.
14 Global Sourcing
Tab Tsukuda '95 (EMIM) illustrates
exactly how global sourcing policies
affect the bottom line.
16 Supply Chain
Management
Becomes an Art
Good global sourcing strategies control
corporate destiny-which is why
companies like Holeywell and Ford are
turning to Thunderbird.
-EATUHES
1 THUNDER WHO?
Thunderbird defines its brand strategy
and embarks on a worldwide marketing
campaign.
3 ALUMNI COMMUNITY RECONNECTS
It's called Alumni My Thunderbird and
more than 6,000 alumni are already maxi­mizing
this power online tool. Are you?
17 A PROGRAM FOR EVERY NEED
Lifelong learning takes many forms, and
Thunderbird's highly ranked Executive
Education programs are addressing
a surprisingly-broad array.
28 HOMECOMING 1999 OFFERED
VENUES FOR ALL
Nearly 500 Alumni flocked back to
Thunderbird for Homecoming ... for the
workshops, the social functions and at
least one visit to the Pub.
32 FIRST LATIN AMERICAN REUNION
FOLLOWS HIGHLY ACCLAIMED
AMERICAS CONFERENCE
A strategic alliance with The Miami
Herald strengthens Thunderbird's brand
image in Latin America
- EPARTMENTS
20 LETTER FROM ELSEWHERE
Not British, Not Chinese:
Hong Kong must redefine its
identity, says Meredith Peabody
'96 (EMIM).
22 EYES AROUND THE WORLD
Messenger of Peace: Madame
Jehan Sadat, the widow of slain
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat,
shared her warmth during an
extended pre-Ramadan visit to
Thunderbird.
24 CAMPUS NEWS
26 NETWORK NEWS
35 UPDATES
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Visit Thunderbird at
www.t-bird.edu
Alunmi Conununity Recormects
by Jessica McCann
It's a desire that crosses many cultures, a feeling shared
around the globe. It's the wish to be part of a "commu­nity"
-to connect with people who share your interests,
beliefs and goals. You already belong to a unique commu­nity
of internationalists. And, now, a lifelong connection
with other members of that community is only a "click" away.
Last November, Thunderbird embarked on a new era of com­munication
when it launched an online community for alumni,
Alumni My Thunderbird CAMTB). This free service offers T­birds
lifetime email, discussion groups, job postings, School
news, and a search feature that allows them to locate fellow
your interests, where you work, how you can be reached. You
can even add links to your personal or corporate websites."
Within this password-protected online community, alumni
have several tools to help them stay in touch with their far-flung
friends and colleagues. The T-bird Network Search allows them
to find old friends (and new ones) based on search criteria they
choose. Discussion groups keep the lines of communication
open on a variety of topics. Hundreds of groups already have
been formed, ranging in topic from "Job Exchange" and
"Mergers and Acquisitions" to "Global Sounds" and "Regional
issues in Latin America" Using Lifetime email, T-birds ensure
alumni by name, class year, geographic location,
job function and industry. More than 6,000
alumni have already registered and
Alumni they'll stay in touch regardless of where their
travels may take them.
begun using the system to stay con­nected
with one another and the School
"This is a very cool, value-added feature.
rve already looked up most of my close friends from School and
am making contact with people I haven't seen in years," com­mented
Jeff Schlueter '90, who was among the first to sign on.
Thousands of recent graduates have already experienced
what the first phase of My Thunderbird could accomplish on
campus for students, faculty and staff. It has provided an exclu­sive
forum for discussion, a way to stay up-to-date with campus
news, and a method for easily exchanging information. Future
graduates will experience a seamless transition from the cam­pus
intranet to the second phase of My Thunderbird, the alumni
online community. Their logon IDs and passwords will remain
the same, and the switchover will happen instantly. Yet, with all
the alumni community has to offer, grads will find even more
value in My Thunderbird than before.
"With the 'Personalize' feature, you control what personal
information alumni get to see when they search for fellow T­birds
online. And the more information you choose to share, the
more valuable this networking tool becomes," explained Joy
Lubeck '86, assistant vice president of alumni relations for
Thunderbird. "You can personalize your proffie as much or as lit­tle
as you choose-tell other alumni about yourself,
"Since our buddies often fly off to dif­ferent
parts of the world upon gradua­tion,
this is the only way we can stay in
touch," said TIm Sultan '96.
In addition to its networking features, AMTB is also a con­tent-
rich website that is updated regularly. It includes informa­tion
about School-offered programs, services and alumni
discounts. The Start Page features news items that highlight
upcoming events, School and T-bird achievements, volunteer
opportunities, and more. Other areas include photos and high­lights
from Thunderbird events, a campus photo gallery, and a
"Reading Room" with articles and speech transcripts from
alumni, students, faculty, and guest dignitaries and speakers.
The School's technology development team also is already
working on improvements to AMTB. Based on feedback
received from alumni, some enhancements were implemented
within weeks of the launch-refined tutorial and help features,
an enhanced logon page and process, and new industry and job
function categories for alumni searches. Other, more dramatic,
enhancements will be part of an AMTB 2.0 package expected to
rollout by summer 2000. The 2.0 version will include new fea­tures
for alumni to create and customize their own areas on
AMTB, new Thunderbird Alumni Association (TAA) Chapter
and Regional Council sections, Chapter Pages, simplified
'Personalize' features, and more.
"We want this to be a tool alumni will eqjoy using, and will
use often, to stay connected to the Thunderbird community,"
said Joe McVicker '98, Thunderbird's director of applica­tion
development. "In the short time AMTB has been up
and running, we've received hundreds of suggestions
from alumni for ways to further improve the sys­tem.
We take that feedback seriously and intend
to continue working with the Alumni Rela­tions
Office to make this a tool our alumni
can't live without. "
Sign on today at
http://alumni.my.t-bird.edu. •
Joe McVICker '98 (left), Thunderbird's director
My Thunderbird to Argentina Chapter
Sasagu Usui '95 during the Chapter
Conference at the Latin America
in Miami.
By LINDSEY MICHAELS
hirty years ago an 'eticket' was the coveted coupon
that got you on the best of Disney's rides-and the
Internet had just been born. Today, the Internet is
the planet's hottest ride, and an 'eticket' is an elec­tronic
airline pass. And although Uncle Walt's famous 'small
world' phrase was mostly right, it's turned out to be more of an
'eworld' after all.
The Internet revolution will almost certainly change modern
life and commerce more significantly than anything since the
Industrial Age began. It has nearly limitless potential. Now that
the secret's out peo­ple
around the world
are asking: "How do I
prepare?"
"The Internet is as important as the invention of the television or telephone, but much more
valuable," said 1ravis Good '84, vice president of technology and operations, America Online
(AOL) International. "Unlike anything in history, it's touching and changing every comer of our
lives."
According to Good, the Internet is prompting two fundamental changes to people's lives. "It's
letting you keep in touch with whomever, whenever-<:reating a new standard that lets you
communicate wherever in the world you are. It's also putting
information access at everyone's disposal-whether that be If you don't know
information you need for school, business, or something
you're interested in at home."
Email, alone, has already revolutionized modem commu­nication
capabilities, allowing friends and colleagues to flat­ten
the time and space continuum to stay in touch. Programs
even make it possible for them to have live email 'chats' and
to use their computers as low-cost long distance telephones.
But, email is just the tip of the Web iceberg. By using the
Web, people can do everything from conduct competitive
research to order groceries. Businesses can eliminate moun­tains
of purchasing and import-export paperwork. They can
even use the Internet to have foreign manufacturers run diag-ebusiness,
you
might be out of
business! That's
because the Web
is taking us all one
giant leap closer to
a world economy.
THUNDERBIRD 53 12 I 2000
nostic tests on key machines then send
replacement parts before the end users
even suspect potential breaks.
Just how prevalent is Internet usage?
Consider this:
• According to Nua Internet Surveys, as
of September 1999, an estimated 201 mil­lion-
plus people were already online
worldwide (see chart, page 11). By all
accounts, that number will explode.
• While consumers spent US$31.2 billion
online in 1999, they will probably spend
ten times that, or $380 billion, in 2003.
• Although online business-to-business
commerce totaled just US$19 billion in
1997, it will surpass $250 billion this year,
then climb past $1.4 trillion during 2003.
"There's just never been this type of
opportunity before, so broad, so pervasive,
so convenient," Good said. "And those of
us who seize this opportunity have a
chance to do something important in busi­ness
and in people's lives."
To understand the business potential of
the Web, just look at Dell. You, literally,
cannot buy a Dell computer in any store.
Yet, Dell is the top PC seller in the United
States and it's No.2 worldwide, trailing
Compaq by just 2.2 percent of market
share. By eschewing the traditional 'brick
and mortar' mindset for a Web-based 'click
and order' one, Dell is selling more than
$35 million worth of product every day.
Analysts expect those sales to increase as
Internet use becomes pervasive globally,
especially if customers can simply sign on
to Dell.com, scan the product offerings,
make a choice or two, and hit 'submit' to
get computers shipped directly to their
homes or businesses.
"When designing a site for doing busi­ness
on the Web, the customer's experi­ence
and ease factor have to be the most
important element," said Annette Berk­san
'77, an Internet development analyst
who works with Dell's Home & Home
Office Web group. Berksan was part of the
team that worked on the rearchitecture
and redesign of Dell's site-which took
nine months to create and went live in
November '99.
"The big joke around here was that the
old site looked 'so '98'," she said. "That's
because Web technology and usage knowl­edge
change so rapidly." Berksan said that
Dell officials believed their former site had
gotten 'cluttered'. The new Dell site strives
to be 'cleaner and more customer conve­nient-
which, studies show, is absolutely
critical to customers worldwide.
Although Dell is considered to be one of
the world's most technically advanced
Web sellers, it still wrestles with all those
weighty 'global by default' Internet
issues--like, 'localization,' which is espe­cially
important given the strong correla­tion
between customers' perceived Web
comfort level and their degree of Web
usage. Thus, like others, Dell had to
address three core localization concerns
when redoing its site. They were: Should
we create a custom look and language site
for each country? To what degree should
we invest in translations for each site?
And, should we employ a branded or
unbranded site strategy?
Given that Dell and AOL serve different
types of businesses and customers, each
has answered those questions somewhat
differently. Dell provides a pull down bar
I:>n:,umer aspect. Inta'net and thars
the Internet., But thft's only a fraction of
InjiMlt 41111_4Iref)usfr. olM!ratio...wJJe part that oct that
For instance, a General site could see special GE orM!' ill' p I
.,jIl .... about which "del:, Gle:tr'efers.'IHIs:i~ht~""~.!!!J~ guided or restricted electron i­THUNDERBIRD
53 /2/ 2000
level coded so that they could order
.horizat:ion to order different ones.
subWiltractolrs, who forward them to UPS,
The Internet also allows for
which lists 80 countries. Customers select
one and, in most cases, are transported
into a local language site. Each site has the
same 'standard' look and feel, although
depth-of-site and product promotions are
determined by one of four regional Dell
teams. AOL, on the other hand, has
expanded by creating partnerships, allow­ing
each to create a unique AOL seIVice for
its locale.
"Since being global is crucial to our suc­cess,
we use a joint venture international
expansion strategy," said Good. "AOL
brings the technology, the brand, and the
know-how, but together with our local
partner, we select a team that is almost 100
percent made up of people from that coun­try,
people who are going to understand the
personal preferences of the local people as
well as their preferred business style. "
Another critical Web issue involves 'dri­ving'
people to one's site. The bottom line
is that the optimal marketing mix often dif­fers
from country to country-and by cus­tomer.
Dell, for instance, uses direct mail
heavily.
"What we find," Berksan said, "is that
people often come to our site from cata­logs-
especially our business clients. On
average, they visit five times before they
buy. And even then, some are more com­fortable
picking up the telephone." Thus,
Dell provides a telephone order number
on most sites.
Dell also offers custom sites for key
business and government clients, which is
important since they account for 70 per­cent
of Dell's business. (See sidebar)
"One of the things we find that's quite
effective is 'sticky content, '" said Per
Huge-Jensen'94, director of new busi­ness
development at Fry Multimedia, a
Michigan-based full-seIVice Internet and
application development firm that boasts
retail giants like Godiva Chocolatier, Eddie
Bauer, Crate & Barrel, 1-800-Flowers.com,
and Harrods among its clientele. "For
instance, people create a 'wish list' from
that site and email it to friends and family.
Or, they participate in sweepstakes where
they have to register, or sign up for 'opt-in'
emails about upcoming promotions and
products." According to Huge-Jensen, his
company averages a 20 percent response
rate on targeted emails.
Sean Judge '94, Fry's director of sales,
added, "The Internet is all about 'relation­ship
marketing,' about personalizing the
shopper's start up page based upon infor­mation
they've already given-or that
you've captured. It's also about conve-
THUNDERBIRD 53 12 / 2000
Global Sales
Unleash the power of the Internet to harness international sales opportunities. Contact Dave Carlson (class of 185)
at Net Works Communications (1 .877.850.9300) or visit us on the web at www.networkscom .com .
• electronic commerce
• database integration
powered bye§ ™
• internet marketing • web site design
• intranet/extranet • web site hosting
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www.networkscom.com Toll free : 1.877.850.9300 Outside the US: ( I )303 .850.9300 Fax:303 .850.9383 profits@networkscom .com
• •• • • •
how much to invest nd how best to levailge new technology?
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nience." Judge cautioned that "the product
should only be one click away from the
buy" and added that, "based upon our sta­tistics,
visitors only click 1.8 pages deep
into a site." That fact, he said, forces you
to build sites that immediately convey a
sense of trust, create a relationship, offer
ease of use, and entice the visitor to make
a purchase.
Fry has been building upon these princi­ples
since mid-1994 when the company
deployed one of the first ecommerce con­sumer
packaged goods site on the Internet
complete with today's popular 'shopping
cart' functionality. "Today we are seeing
more and more of our clients using usabil­ity
studies to perform tests on the informa­tion
architecture, navigation and buying
process to get the most possible out of
their sites." This all adds up to significant
investments by Fry's clients, upwards of
US$8 million to $12 million per year for
Web initiatives.
Judge and Huge.Jensen are quick to add
that the discovery and needs assessment
phases are the most critical of any Internet
project. Taste, tariff, taxation, and fulfill­ment
issues are but a few. For instance,
would someone in Greece get in to Godiva?
And how would you market fresh-cut flow­ers
to Frankfurt? Or deliver computers to
Senegal? Even if you sort out the tariff and
taxation issues involved in getting your
products sold, what's your plan for han­dling
service claims or customer returns?
Dell addresses those issues by dividing
the world into districts. In the United
States., consumer orders are shipped from
Nashville, Tenn., while business orders are
tracked from its Austin, Texas plant.
Overseas, orders are sent from the appro­priate
plant in Brazil, China, Ireland or
Singapore. Each plant configures models
specifically for its client groups-a fact
that has thwarted many an otherwise com­puter
savvy traveler. After all, it's tough to
decipher fonts when they're displayed in
Arabic or screens that convince you that
the machine before you was made on Mars.
"Here in Japan, our computers are con­figured
to use the double byte systems for
Kanji characters, not the single byte sys­tem
you see in the U.S.," explained Kenji
Fujisawa '95, who is a strategic planning
manager in Japan for Dell. "The Japanese
market is also very different. For people
who commute by car and who have big
offices, it's difficult to understand why
SONY's light and handy B-5-size VAIO has
been the best selling PC in Japan. But we
commute by train or walk and have small
offices. Fortunately Dell just introduced a
B-5-size Notebook."
Luckily, the Internet itself makes track­ing
tariffs and taxes easier since both data
and figures can be pre-programmed and
quickly changed. "100 percent of the more
than 4,000 suppliers that advertise with us
each month on Asian Sources Online are
connected," said Jim Strachan, executive
director of Asian Sources, "even the 800
companies that are based in China" Asian
Sources, which is owned by T-bird Merle
Hinrichs '66, who helped Thunderbird
build its heavily data-driven library, has
long been the leader facilitating Asia's
business-to-business trade with the world.
The company began with print, then added
its asiansources.com site in 1995. Hinrichs'
company recently established a new site,
called globalsources.com, to extend the
business model globally.
"Asian Sources primarily helped global
buyers and Asian-based suppliers find
each other," Strachan said. The suppliers
pay a monthly fee and get a marketing Web
MAY THE WEB BE WITH YOU!
"Traditionally, movies that are advertised
on the Web are one shot deals. They come
and go," said Jim Ward '83, vice president
of marketing for Lucasfilm, Ltd. "The Star
Wars site is already 2,000 pages deep and
going strong. But then, Star Wars has 22
years of equity. "
Besides its successful films and Web site,
Lucasfilm also boasts the two largest down­load
events in history. The company began
using the Web as a way of continuing a daily
dialogue with its fans and it was a big hit.
When Ward launched the first Episode I
trailer on the Web site, excitement flared and
five million people downloaded that clip
within the week-a total of ten million
within the month. A second trailer was
downloaded 25 million times.
Ward said that since Lucasfilm is a 'film
content' company, he doesn't have immedi­ate
plans for translating the bulk of the Star
Wars site. "We translated the film into 16 lan­guages,
but we don't anticipate doing any
deep site translations for right now," he said.
"For one thing, it's very costly. For another,
the majority of our audience is still in the
U.S." Ward added that 90 percent of its Star
Wars site visits come from the U.S. while the
remaining ten percent come from Japan,
Germany, the U.K, and Australia. Lucasfilm
has, however, translated the Star Wars home
page into six languages to make site naviga­tion
easier.
"You might be surprised to learn that our
Web site actually created challenges," he
said. "The Web truly represents the democra­tization
of information. It's instantaneous
and instantly accessible. The site was so well
visited by U.S. and foreign press that every­one
around the world got the same market­ing
messages at the same time. Since we
usually roll out movies at different times
around the world, we had to start our world­wide
marketing way before we normally
would have
planned. Gone
forever are the
days of the tradi­tional
movie
press release,"
he said. "From
now on we'll just
post most of the
information on
our Web site."
Jim Ward and his
wife Dawne are both
T-bird graduates.
THUNDERBIRD 53 12 I 2000
site hosted on the Asian Sources portal.
Asian Sources Online developed the repu­tation
as being so comprehensive that any
company that needed an Asian-based sup­plier
knew the Asian Sources site was
pretty much a one-stop shop.
Today, the globalsources.com Web site
is taking that one better. It offers a grow­ing
database of suppliers from throughout
the world, accessible in global, regional,
country, industry-specific or the private
Buyer Catalog customized format. "Global
sourcing is growing even more important
to retail buyers and other importers. We
add value by helping them leverage our
network to fmd the best deal globally,»
Strachan said. But moving forward the real
value is substantially enhanced.
"Historically, the import buying process
has been mostly paper based. Our next
generation will help companies communi­cate
and exchange transaction documents
electronically. Information won't have to
be rekeyed-which makes it time consum­ing
and error prone. It's just a massive
transformation of the way international
business will get done. »
Even though the Web makes finding and
buying items easier, shipping to and servic­ing
customers remain complex. While
companies like FedEx and UPS offer state­of-
the-art online package tracking in the
United States and most regions, delivery
and tracking remain more challenging
abroad. So does service. While Dell's
Berksan said that each Dell system has a
unique service tag number that customers
can enter online for diagnostic help, online
service capabilities do differ by region.
The truth is, it's still easier to deliver
information than products on the Web.
In many areas, regulatory issues, cus­toms,
and logistics present as big a chal­lenge
as implementing the technology
itself. "By and large, the technology for
doing local and even cross-border trading
throughout the world already exists,» said
Bea Calo '82, director of international
business strategy for E*TRADE. E*TRADE
is an online trading company that allows
ordinary people in the United States,.
Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom,
Japan, France and Sweden to manage
their own portfolios by giving them online
access to information about securities that
are traded on their country's exchange.
With E*TRADE, investors also execute
their own trades with a 'click'
Calo said that E*TRADE chose Canada
and Australia as its fIrst two expansion
spots, primarily because of language and
10 THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
cultural similarities. Yet, as with any inter­national
entity, there were issues. "The
whole concept of individual investing and
self-managed investments is very new out­side
of the U.S.," she said. "So is the com­fort
level involved in doing your own
research, then telling a machine to do what
a live broker used to do." In Australia, for
instance, where the country's entire stock
market only generates about the same vol­ume
as E*TRADE itself, investors found all
of the American-style charts, graphs, and
analysis tools too overwhelming. "Their
United States, an estimated 90 percent of
businesses with more than 500 employees
have T-1 access, whereas only about five
percent of the smaller ones do. Even peo­ple
in rural America are at risk, since 86
percent of Internet capability is concen­trated
in the nation's 20 largest cities. That
figure is even worse in Latin America and
other regions that don't have sophisticated
communications infrastructures. Thus,
even though someone might be 'online,'
don't assume that they 'surf the net and
shop just like Americans. The reality is
comment was, 'This is too
complicated. It's too much.'
So, we've learned to add
features slowly in each
country."
THE WIRED WORLD
that most might only sign
on every fourth day or
so-and then, just for a
few minutes at a time.
AOI:s Good understands
the challenges Calo faces.
"Every country has its own
timeline for widespread
adaptation of the Internet,"
he said. "There's a certain
point at which this mass 'ah
ha!' takes place. Where the
average customer says,
'Wow! I really need this!' It's
all about timing. If you get
in too early, you're just
wasting money. But get in
too late and you face well­entrenched
competitors
and it will cost you more. "
An estimated 201 million
people were online world·
wide as of September, 1999,
according to Nua Internet
Surveys. Here's the best
guess as to a regional break·
down.
But just like the Berlin
Wall, Internet entry barri­ers
will fall and that 'mass
ah ha' will come-market
by market. Will you be
ready? New satellite and
cable technologies are
already coming into play,
Canada & USA 112.4 million
as are new delivery vehi­cles.
AOI:s Good said that
Internet and email access
are already available to
some degree through tele­visions,
cell phones, and
Palm Pilots. Gas pump
access is coming soon.
Someday having wrist­watch
access isn't even
that farfetched.
" ~pe
,"Asia/Pacific
'",,*"
, lati;{America
Africa
Middle East
47.15 million
33.61 million
5.29 million
1.72 million
0.88 million
Issues that affect that
'mass ah ha!' are pretty sim­www.
nua.com
ilar even if adaptation rates differ. One of
the most obvious initial qualifiers-at least
for now-is PC access. Computer costs
are still considered somewhat prohibitive
in most countries, as are telephone and
service provider connection costs. Thus,
initial access in most countries begins at
work-where people tend to start with
email access, then advance to intranets,
then Internet service providers (ISPs) like
AOL. Schools are another common 'con­tact'
point, which means that children who
reside in countries-and even U.S.
regions-with relatively poor education
systems still fall behind.
The good news is that the Internet frenzy
keeps snowballing as understanding
heightens and rates fall. In Germany, for
instance, it only took AOL about one-half
the time to reach the million-subscriber
mark as it took in the United States.
Bandwidth and connectivity issues are
also of concern. Companies without the
faster-loading but much more costly T-1
phone lines lose market edge. In the
"The Internet will eventually become
transparent and we'll live in a world
where service, convenience and informa­tion
access are paramount," Good said.
"That used to bother me because I
thought it would make the world homoge­nous.
But the Internet is doing just the
opposite. It's letting every color in the
rainbow represent itself, every small cul­ture
or dying language reach the world,
every product that's only needed by 1,000
people find its niche. That's the real power
of the Web." •
email addresses:
Travis Good '84, TravisGood@aol.com
Annette Berksan'77,
annette_berksan@dell.com
Per Huge-Jensen'94, perhj@frymulti.com
Sean Judge '94, sjudge@frymulti.com
Kenji Fujisawa '95, strachan@global­sources.
com
Bea (alo '82, bcalo@etrade.com
Jim Ward '83, jim.ward@lucasfilm.com
THUNDERBIRD 53 12 1 2000 11
12
by William E. Youngdahl, Ph.D.,
assoc. professor, operations management
The bricks-and-mortar to ecom­merce
transformation occurring
throughout the globe positions the
new millennium as an era in which
business models will drive supply chain
capabilities to new levels. The ability to
place products in virtual shopping baskets
and have them appear at a front door in a
few days is just the beginning. Mass CllS­tomization
exemplified by Dell Computer
Corporation's direct model created and
continues to create customers as configu­rators-
we as customers want and even
demand to configure products and seIVices
to meet our own unique needs. The over­whelming
growth in ecommerce enabled
by Web-based order entry and custom con­figuration
drives a whole new way of think­ing
about the global 'virtual' supply chains
required to manufacture and deliver prod­ucts
and manage informational and finan­cial
flows along dynamic networks, even
communities, of suppliers and customers.
The current revolution in global supply
chain management pushes the limits of the
meaning of virtual-capturing the desired
essence or effect without the burden of
conventional notions of reality. That is, vir­tual
supply chains deliver products and
seIVices to customers while breaking con­ventions
of time and space.
The Velocity of Inventory
Michael Dell's direct business model
shines as an exemplar of virtual supply
chain management. He dispelled funda­mental
assumptions underlying supply
chains by asking the simple question, "If
we want to earn higher returns, shouldn't
we be more selective and put our capital
into activities where we can add value for
our customers, not just into activities that
need to get done?" A decade ago, com­puter
manufacturers firmly believed that
making components constituted an inte­gral
capability that served as a source of
competitive advantage; some still do. Dell
eI\ioys all of the flexibility of ownership by
establishing information-enabled relation­ships
with capable suppliers while avoid­ing
the shackles of capital outlay.
Dell focuses on the velocity rather than
quantity of inventory. By working with reli­able
suppliers such as Sony, Dell can actu­ally
manage zero inventory in some cases.
It does so by leveraging such innovations
THUNDERBIRD 53 I 2 I 2000
as using UPS to match computers from
Austin with monitors from Sony's factory
in Mexico. The bundled packages are then
shipped directly to the customer. Close
coordination with suppliers and cus­tomers
via extranets replaces inventory
with information.
Supplier Power = Consumer Power
While most are familiar at a basic level
with the workings of the direct model, we
recently stepped out of the box to ponder
the future of automobile buying and the
value chains associated with this future.
Last year, Ewan Gillespie, an MlM student
in a Corporate Partners course at Thun­derbird
developed a futurist scenario
describing an automobile purchase. An
excerpt follows:
"Put the salesman in the back seat."
Jane muttered autobuy's TV jingle as the
cable modem quickly brought the multi­media
site to life. Knowing she wanted
something to show that she had moved up
in the world, Jane clicked on the sporty
two-seater zooming around the screen. A
message came up asking which she
wanted to choose first, the inside systems
or the body. She knew that, from a perfor­mance
standpoint, it was best to start from
the inside and then choose a body that
matched, but she wanted to make a fash­ion
statement So she clicked "Body."
Jane could see how she would look
inside each model, because the digital
camera mounted on her computer display
had taken two pictures that allowed the
site to map a 3D rendering of her face onto
Supply Challis Go VIrtual is from bricks and mortar to ecommerce
or the other way around. Also, what type
of Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) Information Technology (IT) infra­structure
will be needed to support pur­chases
and track customer preferences?
How will this play out across cultures?
the mock driver. Although a few of the
newer styles were tempting, Jane loved
the retro models from past decades. She
was tom between the '90s and the '60s, so
she spent several minutes comparing dif­ferent
models in various simulated envi­ronments.
Finally, it was the 3D rendering
of the '64 Mustang gliding over a winding
mountain road that grabbed her. "Perfect!"
she said.
Having settled on the basic style, she
needed to choose a color. The "InfiniColor"
system let her see herself in the Mustang in
a mind-boggling selection of colors, but she
quickly went for the Classic Red.
Next, she moved on to the guts of the car.
The car was made up of ten different mod­ules,
and several manufacturers had ver­sions
of each one. Prices were displayed
next to every choice. Although autobuy.­com
offered detailed information on each
system to allow an informed choice, Jane
chose to zip over to ConsumerReports.org
to get the low-down. The seIVice cost $10,
but Jane was happy she did it. For example,
she noticed that the cheaper transmission
from Transco had some reliability prob­lems,
so she decided to shell out the extra
hundred for the higher-rated VIsteon model.
But she didn't need any advice when it
came to the engine. Everybody knew that
Lakemens was best. Although the Lake­mens
450 MV6 was almost twice the price
of the respectable Nissan 333, she consoled
herself with the five percent discount she
received for agreeing to put the "Lakemens
at Work" logo on the driver-side door.
Ten minutes later, Jane had selected the
remaining modules and secondary options,
and she viewed a detailed picture of her
handiwork with considerable satisfaction.
But she still had to think about the deliv­ery
option. Standard delivery? Or, could
she wait an extra four weeks for the
Brazilian assembled version, which was
$500 cheaper? Or, did she want to pay a
$600 surcharge and have it in two days?
Feeling a bit guilty about that pricey
Lakemens 450, she decided to forego the
fast delivery and settle for the standard
one-week delivery.
After clicking through the financing, a
message appeared advising Jane of an
incoming call from autobuy.com. Jane
accepted, and the welcoming face of a
middle-aged woman appeared on the
screen. "Hi! I'm Beth," said the lady in a
friendly Australian accent. "Great choice,
and thanks for using autobuy.com. You can
pick up your new car next Wednesday at
the Car Country Megalot on Central. lf you
have a trade-in, bring it down, or John can
pick you up in our shuttle. And remember
our famous guarantee: If you're not com­pletely
satisfied with your new car, just
bring it back in the original condition
within five days for a full refund."
She looked down at her dog, Mitts, and
said, "How about that mountain road next
2. Does the vision for the future build
from an operational Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) System? ERP systems
such as RJ3 from SAP facilitate enterprise­wide
sharing of data. While such systems
have been costly to implement, the bene­fits
of shared data provide a necessary
platform for coordinating enterprise
efforts on a global basis. Without some
form of ERP, global enterprises often find
inter-business unit communication across
homegrown 'legacy' IT systems
By working to be extremely difficult or
Wednesday?"
Far fetched? Perhaps not.
Since the scenario was writ­ten,
GM and Ford have
announced sweeping initia­tives
to integrate customers'
ecommerce buying experi­ences
with networked sup­plier
communities around the
globe. They are stopping
short of mass customization
with reliable impossible.
3. How will we manage the
suppliers such inter-enterprise integration to
as Sony, Dell can optimize flow of material,
information, and payments?
actually manage This is the crux of global supply
zero inventory chain management. As organi­in
some cases. zations such as FedEx and UPS
continue to dazzle customers
that includes complete customization by
module. But as suppliers gain power, as did
Intel and Microsoft in the computer indus­try,
the leap to customizing across plat­forms
could become a reality. If this
happens, we will see an ebusiness struc­tural
migration of the entire auto industry
as we have seen in the computer industry.
This ebusiness structural migration
means that executives will start with
mass-customization value propositions­provide
what the customer wants at any
location at the lowest possible cost-and
design supply chains to fulfill the value
proposition. Many value-adding activities
such as logistics and component manufac­turing
migrate out of the company and into
the hands of capable suppliers while
retaining only the most fundamental of
core competencies.
Creating Your Future
Consider pausing from your busy sched­ule
to develop a futurist scenario for your
own business. In writing and reviewing
your futurist scenario, ask yourself the fol­lowing
questions:
1. How will customers buy products
and services in my industry? When you
consider new marketing and distribution
channels, don't overlook the transition
from existing ones whether the transition
with abilities to move material, informa­tion
and the coordination across applica­tions-
the 'killer apps' such as ERP and
CRM-become the keys to successful
design and execution of global supply
chains. Additionally, integration across the
supply chain requires collaborative plan­ning,
identification of bottlenecks, estab­lishment
of shared performance metrics,
and serious consideration of shifting
responsibilities to those best equipped to
perform.
Building virtual global supply chains
requires an extension of recently popular­ized
knowledge management to the emerg­ing
field of supply chain management.
Broadly defined, knowledge is information
that can be put to business use. The chal­lenge
of global supply chain management
will be to use knowledge rather than
excess inventory to hedge against market­place
uncertainties and delight customers
with customized and localized bundles of
products and seIVices delivered wherever
and whenever desired. •
Dr. Youngdahl has written a chapter on
global supply chains for The Thunderbird
International Business Review,
published by John Wiley & Sons.
He can be reached at (602) 978-7050 or
youngdb@t-bird.edu.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000 13
14 THUNDERBIRD 53 I 2 I 2000
Tab Tsukuda '95 (EMIM) said that a 5 percent
reduction in material cost can have as much
profit margin impact as a 28 percent sales increase.
ncreasing global competition has
compelled many firms like Bechtel
Corporation to seek out world class
suppliers wherever they might be.
Correspondingly, among large U.S.
manufacturers, an estimated 72 per­cent
now procure goods from sources out­side
the United States.
Simple Fact: When the goal is boosting
profits by dramatically lowering costs, a
business shouldfirst look to what it buys.
On average, manufacturers sheU out 55
cents for each doUar of revenue on goods
and services, from raw materials to
overnight mail.
Purchasing's New Muscle
Fortune, February 20, 1995
Factor input strategies encourage finns
to seek suppliers who can provide low cost
goods and services or to find companies
with superior technology. Market access
strategies compel finns to seek suppliers
who can facilitate access to local markets.
Both strategies drive finns to seek globally
competitive suppliers. However, the factor
that leads most finns to seek foreign sup­ply
is low price. Management interest in
this objective is simple: lower purchase
costs can generate a marked improvement
in financial performance.
In the following illustration, a 5 percent
reduction in material cost produces a
profit margin improvement of 2.3 percent
(from 8 to 10.3 percent). The same profit
improvement can be achieved by increas­ing
sales 28.8 percent. Many companies
simply find a 5 percent reduction in mater­ial
cost easier and less costly to achieve.
Global sourcing is one tool used to
reduce material cost. However, global
sourcing is more than simply finding low
cost producers. To successfully implement
a global sourcing program, companies
must be able to manage the increased
complexity associated with cross-border
trade. Two examples of business areas
requiring attention are (a) foreign
exchange risk and (b) import taxes.
Foreign Exchange Risk
Many buyers assume that by denominat­ing
purchases in their home currency (e.g.,
U.S. Dollars (USD)), they have eliminated
foreign exchange risk. What these buyers
ignore is the 'cost' of transferring the
transaction exposure to the supplier as
well as the cost savings opportunities that
might be available.
For example, a U.S. engineering and
construction company is purchasing a
power plant boiler from a manufacturer in
Monterrey, Mexico. Who bears the transac-
tion exposure depends upon the currency
selected to denominate the purchase. The
boiler manufacturer would bear the trans­action
risk when the order is denominated
in U.S. dollars. The risk borne by this man­ufacturer
is that they will receive less, in
Mexican Pesos, than originally anticipated
at the time of the quotation.
This exchange rate risk can be divided
into three phases:
Quotation Exposure. Although our boiler
manufacturer may hedge the price quoted
(e.g., obtain a forward contract) , it is
unlikely that the company will entertain
this option unless it perceives a very high
probability that it will receive the order. It
is more likely that the manufacturer will
increase its price to cover the associated
transaction exposure.
Backlog Exposure. The actual order marks
the incidence of the transaction exposure.
The manufacturer might hedge its
expected payments at this time but unfor­tunately,
this likely provides the buyer no
pricing relief.
Billing Exposure. The period of time
between shipmentibilling and actual pay­ment
introduces exchange rate risk-par­ticularly
if the buyer imposes extended
payment terms.
To continue our example, assume that
delivery and payment will be made one
year after order placement. The Mexican
manufacturer prices this order at
US$2,000,000 or 17,500,000 Mexican Pesos
(MXP). With the spot exchange rate at 9.2
MXPIUSD, some U.S. buyers might denom­inate
the order in U.S. Dollars assuming
FORWARD RATES
The exchange rate in a forward contract
(forward rate) is a function of the spot
exchange rate and the interest rate differen­tial
between the two currencies.
In the case of the Mexican Peso and u.s.
Dollar, interest rates in Mexico are higher
than in the u.s. (by approximately 20 per­cent
on an annual basis) and therefore the
Mexican Peso trades at a discount in the for­ward
market. That is, you receive 20 percent
more Mexican Pesos per U.S. Dollar on a 12
month forward than at spot exchange rates.
FORWARD CONTRACT
A forward contract is an agreement where a
bank agrees to 'sell' a set amount of a for­eign
currency (e.g., Mexican Pesos) for a
fixed sum (e.g. u.s. Dollars) on an agreed
upon date in the future (or during an
agreed upon period). No money changes
hands until the date set out in the contract.
Forward contracts are the most commonly
used financial instrument for hedging
foreign exchange risk.
that the foreign exchange rate risk has
been eliminated at little cost to their com­pany.
However, our buyer recognizes that
the boiler can be obtained for significantly
less by denominating the order in Mexican
Pesos-about $1,600,000 (USD) or
$400,000 (USD) less than indicated by the
spot exchange rate. The buyer's analysis
appropriately considered the 12-month for­ward
exchange rate, not the spot exchange
I
J
f
J
rate. Our buyer was able to take advantage
of the supplier's lower price (because the
supplier was not forced to increase its
price for assuming the exchange rate risk)
and utilize an international financial instru­ment
to his company's advantage.
Import Taxes
Another aspect of global sourcing
involves the assessment of customs duties
on imported goods. For example, if we
return to our U.S. engineering and con­struction
company, assume that our buyer
is responsible for the importation of a
Japanese steam turbine generator (STG)
to be used in the new power plant. The
components comprising the STG are a
steam turbine, generator and digital con­trol
unit. Each is completed at a different
time. Some buyers will ship the compo­nents
as they are completed in an effort to
minimize storage costs at the supplier's
site. Unfortunately, this "cost saving" tac­tic
actually increases costs.
For customs duty purposes, the genera­tor
is classified as other than a generating
set (HTSUS 8501.64.00) and is assessed a
customs duty rate of 2.9 percent. The
steam turbine is classified as turbojets, tur­bopropellers
and other gas turbines
(HTSUS 8411.82.80) and carries a duty rate
of 5 percent. If we combine these compo­nents
into a single shipment (albeit in sep­arate
crates), all of the components are
classified as a generating set (HTSUS
8502.30.00) and carry a customs duty rate
of 2.9 percent. Our buyer is thereby able to
shave 2.1 percent (5 - 2.9 percent) off the
tariff applied to the steam turbine and sim­ilarly
save on the digital control unit as
well. Additional savings are also available
by combining the cargo on a single ship
and thereby negotiating a better rate on
the larger shipment. This opportunity is
PROFIT MARGIN IMPACT MODEL
Retumon
Investment
10%
(11K)
not confined to high cost capital goods-it
is easily repeated with low cost consumer
goods shipped in volume.
Summary
Companies that continue to view pur­chasing
as an administrative function (Le.,
just people who issue paper to buy some­thing)
will face increasing cost competition
from firms that are able to effectively utilize
global sourcing. Leading firms recognize
purchasing as a value-added activity.
Globally competitive companies will be
increasingly staffed by purchasing profes­sionals
who are able to effectively transact
business across borders. This article
addressed only two of the tactical issues
normally encountered in international
trade: foreign exchange and import taxes.
However, it should be clear that the effec­tive
management of just these two aspects
of a cross-border transaction can have a
significant impact on the cost competitive­ness
of a firm. Those firms able to manage
the added complexities of cross-border
trade can realize significant competitive
advantages over less adept domestic com­petitors.
Leading companies recognize
that global sourcing is not just about buy­ing
something overseas-it is about
achieving competitive advantage in
increasingly global markets. •
Tab Tsukuda may be reached at
tttsukud@bechtel.com
THUNDERBIRD 53 /21 2000 15
LUMNIISERVICES
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT BECOMES AN ART
When you spend billions of dol­lars
a year on materials, cost
cutting can make or break
your company. Thus, effective
global supply chain management has
become one of the Holiest of Grails in
industry. And yes, the Internet has opened
up brave new worlds of opportunity­where
buyers and sellers can quickly meet.
But in the end, good global sourcing strate­by
Lindsey Michaels
In the end, Jones said, "Companies can
always get their systems to 'play' once they
get their people on the same page with
goals and strategies." In fact, he added,
having multinational sourcing and manu­facturing
options, as well as culturally sen­sitive
buyers in many lands, can be a plus.
"For instance, today's fighter aircraft are
moving toward liquid crystal and flat panel
displays," he said. "They're better and eas­gists
and strategies control
corporate destiny. That's Thunderbird offers formal Corporate
ier to read. But Japan is
the leader in that tech­nology
and its govern­ment,
by constitution,
doesn't allow technol­ogy
transfer for
weapons. That's when
multinational creative
solutions come in to
play. Then, there are
countries like Turkey
that have offset require­ments,
which mandate
one reason supply chain
people are in demand and
why companies like
Consulting or Corporate Partnership
programs to address nearly every
global business need. Length, depth,
Honeywell and Ford are and cost are tailored to client need.
partnering with Thunder- The School also offers InterAd, where
bird to have studentJfac- tailored teams do in-depth marketing
ulty teams conduct key and product launch analysis, and ForAd,
research. which gives top finance students
"Honeywell Internation-real-
world issues to strategize. For more al, which includes the old
Honeywell and Allied­Signal
companies, will
spend US$5.5 billion on
production materials this
year," said Rich Jones '93
information, contact Thunderbird's
Office of Corporate and Foundation
Relations at cfr@t·bird.edu
or (602) 978·7641.
(EMIM) vice president of supply manage­ment
for Honeywell's Space and Aviation
Control unit. "In our old company, we used
to spend 35 to 40 percent outside the U.S.
That will be higher now, with more of our
materials coming from Europe and Asia."
Jones said that today's supply chain
issues are more complex. They don't just
involve finding quality, low cost materials.
They involve predicting demand, designing
to key supply specs, keeping material
costs off the books, and expediting manu­facturing
and delivery. That's why most
companies are moving toward strong,
long-term supplier partnerships where
buyer and sellers integrate systems, share
detailed forecast and cost data, and even
design products jointly.
"Mergers, like our recent one, make sup­ply
chain issues even more complex
because information systems, supplier rela­tionships,
and buying philosophies aren't
always compatible," Jones said. "Here in
the U.S., for instance, we tend to build long­term
alliances that have more to do with
strategic relationships than up-front price.
In China, however, the word 'alliances' can
be misinterpreted. Chinese buyers tend to
view anything that's not pushing a lower
price as 'fat,' and they're suspicious. "
16 THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
ence our
through to
Dr. Bill
Corporate P
that assesses
strategies for
with Ford for
mic and real-WOfll(l-:
widely by culture, so
approaches must be expfameqj
and standardized, Jones Said.
year Youngdahl's students are looking at
best practice sourcing strategies for a spe­cific
automobile system.
"What makes this program work is the
fact that Ford makes real-time company
data available to me and our student
teams," he said. "Team members also have
access to Ford executives and key suppli­ers."
Thus, the team does both primary
and secondary research. It also brings a
fresh perspective.
"Sometimes, our corporate partners
have us do their initial research. At other
times, I think they're partnering with us to
get a second opinion," Youngdahl said.
"Remember, with global sourcing, there's
up to 75 percent of material costs at stake
so good research and having an added
degree of certainty are paramount."
Youngdahl added that students apply for
each project, they often bring different cul­ture
and job backgrounds, and they are,
ultimately, selected for program participa-by
Ford
~ Yourlgd:ahl, Ford
Korean Executives from the SK Group balance the weight of the world, both literally and figuratively, as they strengthen their position in the new
I by Lindsey Micfw,els
n one room, executives from South
Korea's SK Group study global manage­ment.
In another, Thunderbird Internation­al
Consortium (TIC) members manage a
merger/acquisition class. Nearby rooms
hold people pursuing five different pro­grams:
a weeklong leadership course, a
custom Pharmacia & Upjohn class, a local
certificate program, a first-ever alumni
course, and an English as a second lan­guage
class. Meanwhile, in France, a 8T
Microelectronics group works through a
five-day class-while in Brazil, tradesmen
tackle a two-day telecommunications
workshop.
And you thought Thunderbird's Execu­tive
Education group just taught the EMIM
program!
Say "Exec Ed" to Thunderbirds, and
most think solely of the School's weekend
degree program. Few people realize that
Exec Ed now offers a full range of highly
ranked continuing education programs for
Thunderbird alunmi and non-T-birds. And
more are on the way.
So, if you still think Exec Ed only runs
the degree program, you might be sur­prised
to learn that Thunderbird's Execu­tive
Education programs are ranked in the
world economy. Here, Chung Jae Ho gives the world a spin.
top three worldwide by Busi ness Week
magazine and that all of the following pro­grams
took place during one very typical
week at Thunderbird.
South Korean Group Has Three-Month Stay
Twenty-three members of South Korea's
SK Group near the end of three intensive
months at Thunderbird. They've practiced
English, experienced American culture,
and learned key global business skills.
Today they're working on final company­specific
presentations using what they've
learned.
The SK Group, which is South Korea's
fourth largest conglomerate, or 'chaebol,'
has sent 20 or more students per year
through this program for eight of the last
nine years.
"Here at Thunderbird, I've felt the reality
of globalization," said Park Bok Soo, then a
senior manager at SK. "Students come here
from various countries, and study hard.
They will be my-or my son's-competi­tors.
Most Koreans, including me, need to
face and prepare for that reality."
The SK program begins with three
weeks of intensive English classes. During
the remaining nine weeks, the participants,
who are all from South Korea, meet from 8
a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday,
as well as for a half-day every other week­end.
They spend 90 minutes each day in
English class, and the rest addressing eight
global issues that SK's management deems
most significant: including global strategy
and advanced finance. While at Thunder­bird,
group members also visit national
parks, local attractions, and faculty mem­bers'
homes. Each student also works with
a dedicated tutor for five hours per week.
"The tutors are actually one of the most
popular parts of the program," said Debisu
Boston, the senior program coordinator in
Exec Ed's Thunderbird Language and
Culture Center. "They serve as conversa­tion
partners, involve their students in cam­pus
activities, and take them off-campus to
experience American culture first-hand."
The custom-designed SK ManagemenU
English program is one of several pro­grams
Exec Ed has designed for compa­nies
that want help addressing unique
global training needs. The program ends
with each student team focusing on one of
several issues that SK deems critical.
Approximately 12 other SK Group mem­bers
per year also participate in a Thun-
THUNDERBIRD 53 12 I 2000 17
derbird International Consortium II (TIC
II) program, which meets three times a
year for two weeks per time.
Leading Companies Partner in Consortia
Back in the early 1990s, Thunderbird
began forming strategic partnerships with
leading global firms that wanted to
actively develop their global management.
By 1992, those informal partnerships had
evolved into a formal Thunderbird Inter­national
Consortia (TIC) program. Thun­derbird
currently runs two separate TIC
groups. A third is being formed.
"Thunderbird partners with non-compet­ing
companies with similar global manage­ment
training needs and objectives," said
Don Trotter, an associate vice president in
Exec Ed. "Each consortium is run by its
own advisory board comprised of com­pany
and Thunderbird representatives,
with each board actively influencing what
course content its members receive." That
content can range from 'big picture' to
function-specific initiatives-everything
from global human resources and staff
development, to global marketing, regional
analysis, strategic alliances, and corporate
finance.
According to Trotter, all partner compa­nies
send different participants to different
programs to take maximum advantage of
each module's content. Some, like the SK
Group, also send their non-native English
speaking employees through a weekiong,
pre-module English refresher course.
"We also offer what we call a TIC-Plus
course," he said. "Basically, it's a special
three-day, topical program that helps con­sortia
members address a specific need."
The current TIC-Plus program targets
merger and acquisition needs.
"I came here to evaluate how the TIC
format could help us address our training
needs," said David Thornewill von
Essen, a '98 EMIM graduate and British
national. "I work for ON Semiconductor,
which recently spun off from Motorola.
We're a $1.7 billion company with 10,500
employees and we're looking to use this
great resource called Thunderbird to cre­ate
a cost-effective 'virtual' MU [Motorola
University).
"In my EMIM classes here, we covered
topics broadly. In this mergers and acquisi­tions
program, we discussed very applied
issues. We also had people in class from
AlliedSignal and Kellogg who were actu­ally
doing a merger/acquisition now. You
don't get more applied than that."
As a result of his experience, Thornewill
1B THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
von Essen has enrolled ON Semiconductor
in TIC III, which begins in June. TIC III par­ticipants
may also include companies like
Toyota and Prudential. TIC I and II partici­pants
include AlliedSignal Inc., AT&T, BP
Amoco, Delphi Automotive Systems, The
Dow Chemical Company, Dow Agro­Sciences,
EDS, General Motors, The
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Kimberly­Clark
Corporation, Lucent Technologies,
and Warner-Lambert Company.
Executive Education Goes Global
While many of Exec Ed's clients come
to Glendale, not all do. In fact, Thunder­bird
is taking more and more lifelong
learning courses on the road. Some are
company specific. Some focus on certain
jobs. Others are geared toward specific
industries. During the week that Thunder­bird
magazine crashed Exec Ed's Glendale
programs, the School was also hosting two
very different programs in Marseille,
France, and Siio Paulo, Brazil.
"We conduct about 17 courses a year for
a French company called ST Micro­electronics,"
said Charles Gibson, an Exec
Ed director. "ST is already the world's
ninth largest semi-conductor manufac­turer
and is aiming for number five. So at
their request, we've tailored a full range of
programs specifically to them." Those
courses are also delivered right at ST's
French facility.
"Education is a strategic issue for ST
Microelectronics," said Jean-Claude Nataf,
STU and corporate training director. He
added that ST became impressed with the
"competencies and international experi­ence"
of Exec Ed's professors back in 1995,
as well as with the School's willingness to
"work with us as a team to adapt to
changes in the market. That's why
we established a long-term partner­ship
with Thunderbird's Executive
Education for our management
development programs in the fields
of strategy, finance and marketing."
The module running at ST during
this particular week is Advanced
Management Program: Finance/
Marketing, which offers two and
one-half days of training each in
finance and marketing. Thunder­bird's
Drs. Jim Mills and Chris
Miller typically teach that program
in France four times per year, using
cases that are specific to ST. Exec
Ed also provides case-specific
Advanced Management Program:
Strategy, and Fundamentals of
Management/Finance training to
ST several times each year.
During this week, Exec Ed is
also spearheading a two-day
telecommunications workshop in
Brazil where the industry has just
been privatized. This workshop
marks the first time Thunderbird
has run a telecom- munications
program in South America and so
Exec Ed has partnered with TDC
Integris, an education and training
company. Sixty people attend, listening to
simultaneous translations in English and
Portuguese.
"The Brazilian market is very hungry for
global telecommunications management
programs like this one," said Dr. Ram
Sundaresan, who runs this program.
"They're also interested in two-way inter­active
teaching styles, where the audience
participates. "
Meanwhile, Back at Thunderbird . ..
Pharmacia & Upjohn (P&D) managers
are participating in a one-week Managing
for Growth session. Program participants
are chosen by P&U senior management
based on their level of experience and
potential for growth within the company.
They come from nearly every continent
and a number of job types. Most have
never met before.
P&U approached Thunderbird several
years ago and asked for help designing
programs that would meet employees' life­long
learning goals. Thus, this custom pro­gram
(which is delivered in two, one-week
blocks) was bom.
"Thunderbird faculty and staff show a
real ability to understand our needs," said
Larry Fagenhaug, director of organiza­tional
and management development at
P&u. "Their interest in looking at issues
from our standpoint and designing the cur­riculum
accordingly has helped our rela­tionship
evolve into a true partnership. We
are continually redesigning the pro­gram
to align with our strategic
direction. "
companies and more than 10 countries
are taking Exec Ed's relatively new
Leading the Global Organization course.
This one-week program is geared toward
developing global leadership skills.
Participants study global team building,
organizational development, rewards and
recognition systems, partner manage­ment,
and negotiation styles. They even
conduct a sometimes-frustrating mock
negotiation during which groups are
secretly assigned opposing negotiation
styles and strategies.
"Academic Director John Seybolt has
done a phenomenal job developing a close
bond among participants in this program,
an amazing feat given the multicultural mix
One of the most exciting things
Exec Ed did for P&U involved
designing an industry-specific four­day
computer simulation that repli­cates
the actual set of charac­teristics,
conditions, and forces
P&U faces. "It is by far the most
realistic simulation I have partici­pated
in," said Ron Cheeley, vice
president, Global Compensation
and Benefits. "I am relatively new to
the industry, so the simulation
helped me gain a better understand­ing
of the product life cycle. It will
allow me to create innovative
reward programs that link perfor­mance
with business results. "
offIrIngs In exceIle"u:oIpcIndl111'11n­ing
att.mative. Exec Ed attracts global
professionals from nearly every field.
In a nearby classroom, 28 Thun­derbird
alumni are huddled in the
flrst-ever pre-Homecoming Global
Issues '99 program. This specially­designed
three-day course has attracted T­bird
graduates spanning four different
decades who now work in more than 12
countries. That includes two sets of mar­ried
T-bird couples and two others who
have already returned to campus to
address other lifelong learning needs.
"This program has been far, far better
than even what I had expected," said Yuji
Furukawa '80 of Japan. "As Thunder­birds,
we could all start the course with a
common perspective, but the discussions
have been so much more in-depth and pro­active
than they were the flrst time we
were students here because of the degree
of current, on-the-job experience each of
us comes with," he said. "These people are
all very aware of what the real issues and
opportunities are in their countries."
In another room, executives from 18
of the group," said Jan Mueller, an Exec Ed
director. Seybolt and Mueller further
deepen that intercultural experience by
inviting a group of current students from
Latin America to dine with the group.
"I actually took this same negotiation
course from Professor Walsh six years ago
and it is entirely different today," said
Juan Gallego '93, a Spanish national who
now works for Nokia in Texas. "Even
though we're T-birds, we need to recognize
that the world is changing and we need to
update our skills constantly .... being here
For more information about Thunderbird's
Executive Education offerings, contact:
• Senior Vice President Bud Robyn at
Robynb@t-bird.edu or (602) 978-7628
• Vice President Frank Lloyd at
lIoydf@t-bird.edu or (602) 978-7923.
with colleagues from all around the globe
has helped me get current on world issues.
I've been focused almost exclusively on
Latin America"
A Program For Every Need
Responding to the needs of Phoenix's
"local" business crowd, Thunderbird
developed a Global Leadership Certificate
Program several years ago. This 13-week
course meets one evening per week and
covers 14 key global executive topics. This
week is roughly the program midpoint for
the 25 executives who commute to Glen­dale
on Monday nights. A second group of
50 is taking the same program across town
in Tempe on Tuesday nights.
Back in the Thunderbird
Language and Culture Cen­ter,
where South Korea's SK
Group also meets, a different
group of 24 foreign nationals
is taking the School's ten­week
Pre MBA Intensive
English Program. This pro­gram
is uniquely designed
for non-native English
speakers who plan to enter
Thunderbird-or other grad­uate
business schools. The
program is offered three
times per year and almost
inevitably "converts" some
students who had planned
on moving on to other
schools.
Although Exec Ed is
almost certainly running its
better known EMIM pro­gram
this week, it may well
also be running several of its
other industry- and job-specific programs
too. Unfortunately, at this point, we at the
magazine are simply too tired to go check!
That Lifelong Learning Edge
If you're starting to understand that
Exec Ed has evolved into quite a busy
place, you're right. Given the pace of global
change, T-birds and non-T-birds alike are
realizing that they need continuous train­ing
to remain competitive. Thunderbird
officials know that, too. That's why the
School's Exec Ed group now offers a wide
range of short-term programs that fulflll
specific needs. It also designs custom pro­grams
for individual companies, and mar­kets
its Case Series study plans. Word has
it that Internet- and distance-learning mod­ules
are also in development, as is an
expanded line of offshore offerings. •
THUNDERBIRD 53 /2 / 2000 19
20
ETTEH FHOM ELSEWHERE
isitors sometimes think that Hong Kong people are rude,
not realizing that pushing, shoving and elbowing are just a tradi­tional
greeting. It's hard to be enthusiastic about a place where
sometimes you can't walk down the street without collecting a
dozen bruises. But where else can you walk a few steps from
futuristic skyscrapers and find little shops where ancient,
strange smelling, sun-dried fish are sold by ancient, strange
smelling, sun dried fishmongers?
Hong Kong is unlike any other city I've been to in Asia It is a
culturally rich, dynamic and vibrant city with 6.5 million people,
all of whom have an incredible work ethic and a vora­cious
approach to doing business. Money is the driver
of practically all daily activity.
The economic crisis is short-term in nature. We have seen a
decrease in property values. Companies are down-sizing and
restructuring, which has led to layoffs and unemployment rates
that have reached historic levels. There has also been a big drop
in retail trade and tourism.
Because so many of the economic problems are regional in
nature, they remain largely out of Hong Kong's control.
However, it is generally felt that to put Hong Kong back on the
road to prosperity it must widen its economic base and promote
a wider application of innovation and technology to add value to
its products and services. It is now generally realized
that economic growth cannot come from an excessive
reliance on asset inflation as it has in the past
Beyond the more immediate economic problems,
there is a longer-term question about how Hong Kong
should define itself. Hong Kong is not British, and it is
not Chinese. It lacks a national identity. It needs to
determine how it should be governed and what its
basic policies should be. These involve, among other
things, how to maintain and improve the environment
and the legal system, and how to create new jobs and
The first question that people usually ask me when
they find out that I live in Hong Kong is "what has hap­pened
since the handover?" I can honestly say, not
much. The Red Army has not marched in and Hong
Kong has been left to manage its own affairs .. .for bet­ter
or for worse. Although the British are gone, the
Chinese bureaucrats have not moved in or begun issu­ing
orders. This has brought a sense of relief, but it
has also created a nagging anxiety. The auton­After
years of living and working for
maintain a positive business climate.
omy is welcomed, but with that autonomy has
come increasingly complex issues and Bank of America in Hong Kong, Meredith
responsibilities that need to be addressed. Peabody '96 (EMIM) gave a first-person
The concerns start with the issue of funda­mental
identity. Now a part of China, yet sepa­rate
from it, Hong Kong's 'One Country, Two
Systems' motto does not necessarily give use­ful
guidance about how closely Hong Kong
should integrate into mainland China or to
The challenges that Hong Kong faces come perspective of the city's people, poten-in
two broad categories. One is economic and tial and problems before heading off to
the other is in defining its identity. a new assignment in Singapore.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
what extent it should seek an independent international identity.
Hong Kong has become wealthy providing China with a source
of capital, services and technology.
But to remain useful, Hong Kong will need to stay on the lead­ing
edge of China's economic growth. Hong Kong's special privi­leges
might be in jeopardy if it becomes just another Chinese
city. Another critical issue to Hong Kong's future is whether or
not China is accepted into the World Trade Organization. If it is,
Hong Kong's value as a port of entry will be diminished.
Another issue impacting Hong Kong's future is the environ­ment.
A two-year study by the University of Hong Kong pre­dicted
that the city would be 'unlivable' in 15 years unless
something is done about the pollution.
One of the obstacles to attracting overseas financial and tech­nical
specialists is pollution and how it affects the quality of life.
More needs to be done to clean up the air and water and improve
recreational facilities; tougher limits on diesel fuel also would
help. Much of the pollution drifts in from the mainland and
reducing that would require greater cross-border cooperation.
Defining the 'Basic Law' is the challenge facing Hong Kong's
legal system. The Basic Law is, in essence, the post handover
constitution. There is no precedence of how 'One Country, Two
Systems' should operate. It raises questions about limits of
autonomy and the extent to which the Basic Law protects
human rights. How the Basic Law is interpreted and by whom
remains questionable.
Preserving the Rule of Law is also very important to Hong
Kong's future. The Rule of Law brings stability to people's lives
and protects them from unfair treatment. It ensures that busi­ness
can be conducted with confidence and it attracts invest­ment.
Concern arises over the stark differences between the
two legal systems. The Rule of Law has never existed in China
and 40 years of communism has left a legacy of social domina­tion
by party and state.
On the political front, there are still unresolved questions over
how far and how fast the country should extend the democratic
voting process. Today government officials have set a confus­ingly,
tangled, three-tiered voting system to elect their Legislative
Council. The general population directly elects only one-third of
the seats. The other 40 seats are assigned by a select group of
representatives from professional and trade organizations.
Many business leaders believe the politicians, especially the
Democratic Party, are proving too fractious, endangering both
relations with China and the business environment and, thus,
their profits.
However Hong Kong is managed, there is no doubt that it
faces new competition as an international business center.
There is a perception among the international business commu­nity
that Hong Kong has been politicized. For example, the
emergency program last year to stabilize property prices was
seen as government trYing to protect property developers. This
showed a vulnerability to pressure from vested interest groups.
Market intervention during the early part of the recession has
thrown into doubt the government's commitment to maintaining
a laissez-faire system causing some critics to speculate that
Hong Kong's role as a regional trading and financial center could
be in jeopardy. It was also seen as China's intention to buy its
way into Hong Kong busi-nesses.
One of the biggest chal­lenges
to Hong Kong is the
high cost of doing business.
Hong Kong is ranked the third
most expensive city in the
world in which to conduct
business, and the most expen­sive
city in which to live. One
key cost issue involves the
government land policy. Many
overseas businesses consider
One of the obstacles
to attracting
overseas financial
and technical
specialists is
pollution and
how it affects the
quality of life.
the high property prices a kind of hidden tax, which offsets
other advantages. Property prices need to drop further to help
the city meet global competition.
In his recent policy address, Chief Executive Thng Chee-hwa
outlined his plans for creating a more vibrant economy for Hong
Kong. The initiatives that he outlined dealt with all the critical
issues surrounding improving the educational system, the envi­ronment,
housing, the legal and political systems, and job cre­ation.
Execution of these initiatives is going to be a key
determinant of Hong Kong's ability to regain its position in the
international community.
One of the characteristics that I admire most about the peo­ple
of Hong Kong is their resilience. They have an uncanny abil­ity
to focus on what needs to be done, working hard and
sacrificing personally to achieve the desired results. I have no
doubt that Hong Kong will be able to reinvent itself and return
even stronger than it was before. •
Meredith Peabody may be reached at meredith@dbs.com.sg
THUNDERBIRD 53 /2/ 2000 21
22
Anwar Sadat. Jimmy carter. and Menachem Begin celebrate during the historic 1979 peace treaty signing ceremony in
Washington. D.C. That joy turned to horror in 1981 when Sadat was assassinated by those who opposed his views on peace.
Messenger of Peace
Former Egyptian First Lady continues her late husband's quest
by Lindsey Michaels
Her biography described her as dignified, courageous, and The First Lady of the World. Yet, it didn't
even begin to capture the true essence of Jehan Sadat. Sad at, the widow of slain Egyptian
President Anwar Sadat, was warm, gracious, and uncommonly genuine during an extended pre­Ramadan
visit to Thunderbird.
Sadat addressed an overflow crowd of obvi­ously
awed students, staff, and faculty at
Thunderbird. The group rose and greeted her
with a rousing ovation when she entered the
room then stood twice more as she spoke. And,
although some listeners may not have agreed
with all of Sadat's views, most seemed incredibly
impressed with the lady herself. They were also
impressed that Sadat took the time to meet pri­vately
with two separate student/faculty
groups--where she walked around, asked each
Faces alight and audience members rush to stand as
they begin to realize that Sadat has arrived.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
about him- or herself, and shook each person's hand. She had met with the School's Thunderbird
International Symposium group earlier that day.
"My husband was killed because of peace," Sadat told the group. "Yet, 1 support the quest for peace in the
Middle East with all my heart." In a style that one listener described as 'candor and commitment cloaked in
incredible warmth and diplomacy,' Sadat defined peace as an
absolute necessity. ''My husband was killed because of
peace, yet, I support the quest for
peace in the Middle East with all my
heart .. .. Jj we are frightened of being
"I believe people must come face to face, as people, to talk,"
she said. "They must be brave. They must be committed to doing
the right thing in order for peace to be brought about," she
added. "If we are frightened of being killed for promoting peace,
we will never accomplish anything."
An outspoken advocate for justice and social change long killed for promoting peace, we will
before her husband's presidency, Sadat holds a Ph.D. from Cairo never accomplish anything. ))
University and was teaching there when her husband was killed.
She has worked extensively with wounded veterans, and has personally founded hospitals, blood banks, and
orphanages. She has also spearheaded education, social, and legal reforms for women as well as men. Sadat
now teaches at the University of Maryland and travels worldwide promoting peace.
Sadat seemed visibly moved and somewhat humbled by the School's depth and breadth of student diver­sity
and strong sense of community.
"I can't tell you how happy 1 am to see you, a Syrian, sitting next to you, a Lebanese, sitting next to you, an
Israeli, sitting next to you, a Saudi," Sadat told students during one of her meetings. "You and we are all here
as a family. That is what we need to have world peace and you are doing it so naturally!"
Thunderbird's students and staff seemed equally impressed with her.
"Mrs. Sadat is a very humble, very sincere woman," said Naji El-Khalil, a student from Lebanon. "I think
her message is very important in this day and age when so much is happening." El-Khalil asked Sadat how
Arabs could ever present a united front and speak with a common voice on major issues when they were
still arguing amongst themselves over borders and oil. "She seemed sort of ashamed and sad that that was
true, " he said.
"Madame Sadat is an intriguing woman," added Nimrod Posner, an Israeli. "What she has been through
and what she has become-an Ambassador of Peace-influences every person that has the pleasure of
meeting her. 1 think Thunderbird students were honored that a person of that magnitude came here and
talked to us." At the post speech session, Posner and Sadat shared their somewhat different views about the
status of Jerusalem. Sadat greets Iraqi stu-
Haithan AI-Sayed, an Iraqi student, asked 8adat when she thought the world would dent Haithan AI-Sayed
stop fearing Arabs and expressed a personal sense of hurt about how people react to who had expressed hurt
him when they learn his nationality. "If we take the hatred from our hearts, we will all over how some people
be better in the future," she responded. AI-Sayed termed Sadat's visit an excellent react to his nationality.
opportunity to "hear and view the real issues governing the
Peace negotiations of the Middle East from a 'hands on' per­spective.
In addition, 1 got a strong sense of a motherly feel­ing
as Madame Sadat was giving her talk, " he said.
A mother of four, and grandmother of 11, Sadat clearly
adores her family. She spoke lovingly of her three daugh­ters,
and one son, even sharing a personal letter at one ses­sion
that was written by her 12-year-old granddaughter. She
ended both presentations with a moving love poem which
she had written for her late husband when they were young,
and beamed when announcing that her husband's long­awaited
namesake, Anwar Sadat II, was born on the Fourth
of July last year.
"I came to the U.S. after my husband was killed because
1 wanted to talk about peace," she said. "That means that 1
had to leave my children and my grandchildren, whom 1
miss terribly. But 1 will keep encouraging people to talk, as
people, about peace-to be brave about their stands on
peace because down here, in my heart, 1 really do believe
that 1 will see peace in my lifetime. " •
THUNDERBIRD 53 I 2 I 2000 23
24
WWW.T-BIHD.EDU
• New Century Brings • Students Host
New T-bird Curriculum Ebusiness Conference
Based on feedback from "You're not in business unless
employers, alumni, current stu­dents
and faculty, the MIM curricu­lum
is being reinvented to meet the
demands of the rapidly changing
global business world our gradu­ates
face. Beginning this fall, Thun­derbird
will begin phasing in major
curriculum reforms designed to
help ensure that T-birds are pre­pared
to face the enormous global
challenges of the new millennium.
After meeting a set of prerequi­sites
for the MIM, T-birds will begin
the program with a two-week
Foundations for Global Leadership
course. A two-trimester 'flexi-core'
of common courses will follow, to
ensure that all T-birds have a
shared set of core global business
skills when they graduate.
Students lacking foreign language
proficiency will have a more
extended flexi-core to help develop
those skills-leading to a 60 credit
program, compared with a 45 to 50
credit program for those already
proficient in their chosen foreign
language(s).
Under the plan, which was
approved by Thunderbird's faculty,
students will proceed from Founda­tions
through the flexi-core in
diverse student cohort groups of
approximately 50 individuals to
help build a strong sense of the
Thunderbird community among
the students as well as to facilitate
learning. After the flexi-core, stu­dents
will begin specializations to
build more depth in their chosen
areas. They will also be encour­aged
to take one-to-two trimester
internships after their fie xi-core
experiences and will spend their
final trimesters with specialization
and capstone experiences, design­ed
to synthesize and build on the
rest of their programs. Interims
and Wmterims will be optional, but
encouraged, experiences to both
broaden and deepen the knowl­edge
of MIM students.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
you're in ebusiness" was the pri­mary
theme of the entrepreneur­ship,
Venture Capital, eBusiness
(eVe) conference, held on campus
in October 1999. Representatives
from PeopleSoft, QuePasa!.com,
Visitalk.com, and Hurwitz Group,
as well as two venture capitalists,
spoke about the trends in the global
and electronic business fields dur­ing
a seven-hour conference orga­nized
by student volunteers.
A second conference was held
February 4, 2000, at Thunderbird
and attracted heavy student,
alumni, and community interest.
The concept for eVe was initially
focused on entrepreneurship, but
as forum planning progressed, the
emphasis shifted. "The lines
between ebusiness, venture capital
and entrepreneurship are blur­ring,"
said co-organizer Walter
Joyce '00. Therefore, conference
presenters gave a broad overview
of the trends in bUSiness, as well as
the challenges that come with
starting up an ebusiness company.
Thunderbird's Dr. Paul Johnson,
distinguished professor of global
entrepreneurship, said the School
now offers 10.5 credit hours of
entrepreneurship classes--enough
for an official entrepreneurship
major. The School also is working
to create a Thunderbird Venture
Capital Fund,
through which
Kay Keckwill
oversee all Career
Management
Center activities
at Thunderbird.
students could gain funding for Michael
exceptional business plans. The O'Donnell, (right)
School also offers a course in elec- president of
tronic commerce, as well as a Visitalk.com was
Thunderbird Student Government-backed
initiative called eBird. a key speaker at
Ebird's goal is to build students' both eVe
technical and international busi- Forums.
ness skills proportionally. The pro­gram
harnesses the expertise of
students from hi-tech backgrounds
and employees of the School's
Information and Instructional
Technology department to deliver
free courses in HTML program­ming
and network design. Thun­derbid
is also adding more
ebusiness courses to its new cur­riculum.
• Career Management
Center Names New
Vice President
Thunderbird has named Kay
Keck vice president for profes­sional
and career develop-ment.
Keck will run the
School's Career Manage­ment
Center, as well as
lead other Thunderbird
student advising activities.
She also is charged with
piloting a new initia­tive
that will help
students assess
and refine critical
leadership skills.
Keckjoins Thun­derbird
from the
University of Geor­gia's
Terry School
of Business, where
Visitalk.com,
which allows
people around
the world to
share voice,
video, and infor­mation
via the
Internet, also
was a sponsor of
the February
forum. Its sys­tems
let people
make PC to PC
phone calls.
His Excellency,
Dr. Eberhard
Koesch, greets
the Honorable
Bill Behrens at
the Ambas­sadors'
Ball in
Phoenix. Hosted
by the Consular
Corps of Arizona,
the ball raises
money for
Thunderbird. This
year's event hon­ored
Germany
and the 10th
anniversary of
the Berlin Wall's
fall. Koesch is the
acting ambas­sador
of the
Federal Republic
of Germany.
Behrens is an
honorary consul
to Germany.
for the past eight years she has
been the director of graduate pro­grams.
In that position she was
responsible for overseeing all
aspects of the MBA, Ph.D., and
Executive MBA programs.
She holds a Ph.D. in manage­ment
science, spent four years as
an assistant professor of market­ing,
and has eight years of experi­ence
in various sales and training
positions at AT&T.
• Leading Journalists
Visit Th u nderbi rd
Journalists from some of the
world's leading news organizations
have been spending time at Thun­derbird,
thanks to the Council for
Advancement and Support of
Education (CASE) Media Fellow­ships
program. The journalists
were: Sherwood Ross, who covers
workplace issues for Reuters
Business News; Della Bradshaw,
the business education editor at
the Financial Times; and Joshua
Jampol, a freelancer, who writes
for the International Herald Tri­bune
and Time. All attended a vari­ety
of classes and met with faculty,
staff and students.
"This visit con­firms
what I've
always believed,"
said Bradshaw,
"which is that
Thunderbird is the
only truly interna­tional
graduate
business school in
the States."
Each year, CASE
invites media rep­resentatives
to par­ticipate
in a variety
of three- to five-day
fellowships that
allow participants
to interact with
leading scholars,
explore new and
emerging issues,
and learn of cut­ting-
edge ideas at some of the
nation's leading educational insti­tutions.
Thunderbird has partici­pated
in the CASE program for the
past three years by providing fel­lowship
experiences for journalists
from the Wall Street Journal,
Forbes, CNN, The Arizona Repub­lic,
and Washington Technology.
• Three International
Executives Elected to
Board of Trustees
Three leading international
executives have been elected to the
Thunderbird Board of Trustees.
They are: Guillermo Luksic Craig,
Don Budinger, and Samuel S.
Garvin '88.
"We are truly honored to have
these exceptionally talented indi­viduals
join our board," said Roy
Herberger Jr., president of Thun­derbird.
"Their international expe­rience
in different economic
sectors will be greatly beneficial as
we position our School to help the
world face the challenges of global­ization
and economic development
in the next century."
Luksic holds a
key management
position in many
of the Luksic
Group companies
in Chile . Those
companies are
involved in the
food and bever­age,
service, cop­per
and aluminum
products, manu­facturing,
tele­communications,
printing, manage­ment
and financial
consulting, and
banking indus­tries.
Budinger is a founder and inune­diate
past president of Rodel, Inc.,
the world's largest manufacturer of
high precision surface finishing
chemicals for manufacturing com­puter
chips, silicon wafers, and
rigid memory discs. He is also vice
chairman of Rodel, Inc., president
of the Rodel Charitable Foun­dations,
and vice president of
Rodel-Nitta in Osaka, Japan.
Garvin, a T-bird graduate, is
chairman, president and CEO of
Continental Promotion Group
(CPG) in Scottsdale, Arizona. The
US$325 million fulfillment com­pany
handles consumer and trade
promotions throughout the United
States, Canada, and the European
Union and has facilities in Scotts­dale
and Tipperary, Ireland.
• Executive Education
Programs Named to
Business Week Top Five
The October 18, 1999, issue of
Business Week lists the Executive
Education non-degree programs
at Thunderbird as among the top
five in Global Business. According
to Business Week, the top schools
in Global Business executive edu­cation
are, in rank order: INSEAD
[France], Thunderbird, IMD
[Switzerland], Harvard, and
London Business School.
Thunderbird
has long been
considered a
leader in global
management
education. The
school's gradu­ate
business
degree program
has been
ranked No. 1 in
the specialty of
International
Business for
four consecutive years by U.S.
News and World Report.
Thunderbird also ran a full-page
ad in that Business Week, thanks,
in part, to the Executive MIM Oass
of 1999 (EMIM 7) which con­tributed
a portion of the ad cost
as its class gift. The Business Week
survey issue, which features a
review of graduate school execu­tive
education programs, is only
printed every second year so it is
widely read and has a long shelf
life. Its ads enjoy high visibility
wor1dwide.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000 25
• Argentina
Fernando Maurette was the
guest speaker at the October First
Tuesday in Argentina. Maurette,
who is the fonner national deputy
and president of the Foreign
Affairs Commissions of the
Chamber of Deputies, provided the
20 T-birds present an insider's per­spective
on the recent Argentine
election. Sasagu Usui '95 is the
chapter leader.
• San Fransisco
The Golden Gate's twinkling
lights attracted T-birds to San
Francisco for the chapter's first­ever
bay cruise. Guests enjoyed
hors d'oeuvres, wine, beer, song
and several fun-filled contests.
They also received event t-shirts.
• Southern
California
T-birds from Southern California
enjoyed a very memorable evening
aboard the well-known TIKI Boat
in Newport Harbor. Of the 74 cos­tumed
passengers, 39 were T-birds!
All danced the night away while
cruising among perhaps the largest
assortment of yachts on the entire
West Coast.
~Vancouver
alumni pose with
the Thunderbird
banner aboard
the boat of
Skipper John
Avard '65 during
a FirstTuesday
outing. The event
also marked the
30th anniversary
of the first meet­ing
between
Avard and Fred
Koppl '52, who
flew in from
Europe to attend.
26 THUNDERBIRD 53 /2/ 2000
..
BAPTEHS
themeata
Frankfurt First
Tuesday at the
Volkswirt. Chapter
leader Brendan
organized the
event as an ad hoc
fundraiser after
learning that
alumni donation
rates were fac­tored
into major
school ranking
reports.
~ Front Row: Marc
Gallin 'S6 Angela
Cassidy '96; Paul
Gomez '7S; Jeff
Jamison '91. Second
Row: Katherine
Schoettler '9S; Jairo
Gutierrez '91; John
Delap 'S3; Elizabeth
Harder '9S; Srett
Beals '95;Third Row:
Erica Schlomer 'S9;
Dave Daws 'S9;
Yumi Murakami '96;
Ahmed "A.D."
Dawood 'S5; Jack
Pravda 'S5; Richard
Baffour '97; Akemi
Takehana '91; Heidi
Thruau '95; Andy Kelly '95;
Fourth Row: Leah Cadavona
'93; Laura Bowen '9S; Lea
(Santamaria) Spagarino '91;
Tessa Sarrazin.'96; Klara Farkas
'93; Cindy Han; Chris Sedgwick
'S6; Patrick Kiernan '97; Fifth
Row: Jonathan Hoi '96; Xuying
Zhao '9S; David Sugrue '97;
Sharon Machuga '96; Daniel
Cody '93; Kollyn Kanz '93;
Andres Spagarino '93; Not
Visible: Jackie Fimrite '99; Jase
Ramsey '97.
Michelle Perez Kenderish '00
before her wedding in Istanbul,
Turkey. Guests from over 20
nations attended the event,
which was held on the banks of
the Bosphorus at the Ciragan
Palace.
• TAA News
The Thunderbird Alumni
Association (TAA) is now officially
global! During an emotional Home­coming
meeting, TAA members
formally enacted motions that cre­ated
both a Global Board and
North America Regional Council.
Those entities join the Asia Pacific,
Latin America, and EuropelMiddle
EasUAfrica councils, which had
already been established. The
effort capped an active four-year
effort that was spearheaded pri­marily
by alumni Chris Johnson
'86, Annette Cazanave '79 and
Bruce Olson '82, and Thunder­bird's
assistant vice president of
Alumni Relations Joy Lubeck '86.
TAA regional councils help
Thunderbird reconnect with T­birds
globally. All councils are
comprised of in-country represen­tatives
who tell Thunderbird what
local alumni want and need, as
well as how they can support the
School. They also help build
stronger chapters. Two representa­tives
from each regional council
serve on the Global Board, as well.
Thunderbird is actively working
with the TAA to reconnect its
31 ,000 alumni. The Alumni My
Thunderbird intranet is both an
important tool and an impressive
result of that effort.
FROM TOP:
1) Members of the Thunderbird
Alumni Association (TAA) Global
Board, which includes members
from all four regional councils, pose
during Homecoming festivities.
2) Asia Pacific Council members in
Hong Kong.
3) Latin American Council members
in Miami.
4) Europe/Middel East/Africa Council
members in Barcelona.
Plan Now For 25th European Reunion: ., 25-28 at Club Med in
For men infCNiiiiItion oflhur ..... bItch 25th ........... and ........ MIIlS-chIdlAMlllllAfy •• "'''''it
J3eatliee:8fmf!scut' 90inArcbamps at~-6667. or bernegeb@gIobaltbil.deduorMieheDeOlsonat
• Get Connected!
Some 6,000 T-birds have already
signed up and signed on to Alumni
My Thunderbird (AMTB) and
School officials are working to
raise that number to 14,000 by July.
AMTB created an alumni online
community and, thus, an electronic
networking forum that lets alumni
find business partners, post deals,
discuss topics, and do job searches.
Since the system becomes expo­nentially
more beneficial with use,
Thunderbird encourages all alumni
to take advantage of AMTB:
To find the site, go to the School's
main Web page at http://www.t­bird.
edu and click on 'Alumni
Intranet' in the lower left-hand cor­ner-
or go directly to the site at
http://alumni.my.t-bird.edu.
AMTB is password-protected, so
only T-birds can use it. On your first
visit, look for the line "Click here to
register."
The registration page contains
both instructions and a registration
form. Fill out the form and click
"Sign me up!" Thunderbird will
email you your 10 number and ini­tial
password within a few days.
Use your 10 and password to sign
on. You can then search for fellow
T-birds, join discussion groups, per­sonalize
your profile page, and
read about all of the programs and
services Thunderbird offers alumni.
For further assistance, click on the
tutorial icon, which is located in
the lower left-hand corner of the
AMTB start page, or email
Jill Tracy, alumni web specialist, at
AMTB@t-bird.edu.
THUNDERBIRD 53 I 2 I 2000 27
28
Alunmi Flock
Four T AA Global Alumni Award
winners were present to receive
their honors at Homecoming.
Pictured (from left) are Sea
Haechler '90 (presenter),
Christopher J. Fussner '82, James K.
Ward '83, Jack E. Donnelly '60,
Thomas D. Hobson III 79 and
catalina Cisneros '97 (presenter).
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
Back for
by Lindsey Michaels Homecoming
More lhan 500 alwnni returned
to Glendale last November for Homecoming.
Some attended workshops. Some gravitated
more toward social functions. Nearly all made at least one visit to the Pub.
Thunderbird's 1999 Homecoming Iruly offered something for everyone.
Professional opportunities included The Global Issues '99 Executive
Education program, recruiter meetings, hands-on Alumni My Thunderbird (AMTB) training, a
keynote speech by Colombian Ambassador Luis Moreno '77, Thunderbird Alumni Association TAA
Board meetings, and Thunderbird Global Business Forum presentations on credit derivatives, emer­gency
planning, and personal and corporate security. Social activities included campus tours, Pub vis­its,
student/alumni meetings, class dinners by decade, cocktail parties, a gala dinner-dance and the
alumni awards, as well as tennis, golf, the Thunderbird Balloon Classic, and a rugby tournament
"This Homecoming, more than any other in recent memory, has been about celebrating hard work
and dreams," said Joy Lubeck '86, assistant vice president of alumni relations. "We've now formally
created all four regional TAA councils, a TAA Global Board, plus launched Alumni My Thunderbird. I
can't tell you how hard we've all worked and how much these features will help alumni leverage the
worldwide Thunderbird network"
Extraordinary
Alumni Honored
Every year, Thunderbird
and the TAA honor out­standing
alumni during
Homecoming. Honorees
are pre-nominated by their
peers, selected by the
awards committee, then
formally recognized as
Global Alumni Award win­ners
during the gala dinner
dance. Major award cate­gories
are the Jonas Mayer
Outstanding Alumnus,
Distinguished Alumni, and
Rising Star. Chapter Volun­teer
Awards are also given.
This year, the School and TAA recognized six alumni
for accomplishments that embodied what it means to be a
Thunderbird. Major award recipients were Jack
Donnelly '60, Christopher Fussner '82, Bruce Harris
'83, Thomas Hobson III '79, James Ward '83, and
Fernando Farre '94. Recognized as outstanding chapter
volunteers were Beatrice Bernescut '90 of London,
England and Paris, France; Roxy Campbell '69 of Miami,
Florida; Barney Lehrer '89 of New York, New York;
Marilyn Pound '86 of Phoenix, Arizona; Caryn Sykes
'97 of San Francisco, California; and Cindy Brady '74 of
West Michigan, Michigan.
Jack Donnelly '60: Jonas Mayer
Outstanding Alumnus Award Winner
A Thunderbird Trustee for almost 10 years, Jack
Donnelly remains active in all facets of Thunderbird. He has selVed on the TAA, helped with fundrais­ing,
been a Wmterim speaker, and is an active recruiter of new students and graduates. Donnelly is
president of Bailey & Donnelly Associates, a private investment finn. He is a past president of GTE
Communications Systems Corporation and had spent seven years in Europe with ITT. Donnelly cur­rently
selVes on several telecommunications company boards.
The Jonas Mayer Outstanding Alumnus Award is the TAA's highest honor. It is presented each year
to the alumnus who best epitomizes the combination of professional, community, and Thunderbird
activity success.
Christopher Fussner '82, Bruce Harris '83, Thomas Hobson III '79, James
Ward '83: Distinguished Alumni Award winners in Entrepreneurship.
Public Sector/Government/Non-Profit, Banking & Finance, and
Marketing, respectively.
Chris Fussner is president, owner and founder of TransTechnology Pte. Ltd, a Singapore-based dis­tributor
of surface mount technology and semiconductor capital equipment. He is also owner, man­ager,
and wine merchant of Certain Cellars Pte. Ltd, which imports and distributes fme wines.
TransTechnology is a US$35 million company, which employs 100 people and maintains additional
offices in Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Manila, and Cebu. Certain Cellars is a US$1 million entity.
Based in Guatemala, Bruce Harris is the executive director for Latin American programs at
Covenant House, which helps more than 4,400 Latin American street children per year. He has pub­lished
several articles on the treatment of street children and has also been featured in documentaries
by the BBS and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He held previous positions with the Save the
Children Federation and with Up With People. Harris also helped plan the Ethics session of the 1997
Thunderbird Global Business Forum.
The director of technical analysis with Merrill Lynch Europe, Tom Hobson authors Technical
Watch, which watches major global debt markets. He also maintains major corporate and private
clients throughout the U.K Before joining Merrill Lynch, Hobson was at Goldman Sachs, where he
presented market evaluation seminars throughout Europe, Asia, and North America He selVes on the
Thunderbird Archamps Board of Directors, has held several key leadership positions with the TAA,
and selVes as an active student mentor and recruiter.
Jim Ward is vice president of marketing for Lucasfilm, Ltd, where he oversaw the long awaited
global launch of Star Wars: Episode I The Phanton Menace. He also handles all worldwide marketing
of all Lucasfilm theatrical, video, and television properties. Once named one of Ad Age's Top 100
Marketers, Ward has spent 15 years in advertising, where he has spearheaded Microsoft's Wmdows '95
Visit http://alumni.my.t-bird.edu for nomination data.
(top) Colombian Ambassador Luis
Moreno '77 is interviewd by a
Univision television crew after his
keynote address at the
Thunderbird Global Business
Forum.
(below) Professor Mark Griffiths
details the use and impact of
credit derivatives in financial risk
management during an afternoon
Thunderbird Global Business Forum
session.
Mark your
calendars for
Homecoming 2000:
November 2-5
THUNDERBIRD 53 12 I 2000 29
30
Twenty-eight T -birds retumed
to campus for a special
Executive Education, alumni­only
Global Issues 'J9 program.
(center) One of the best things
about Homecoming is simply
running Into old friends and
discussing how much the world
and Thunderbird have changed.
(bottom) TAA board members
and chapter leaders are
'Wowed' by Alumni My
Thuntlerllird during a special
training session of the chapter
leaders conference.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
product launch and overseen Nike's introduction of Tiger Woods as a corporate spokesman. Ward has
long been an active supporter of Thunderbird.
1b be eligible for a Distinguished Alwnni Award, a candidate must have graduated at least ten years
ago, demonstrate excellence in one offour areas, and be involved in civic and Thunderbird activities.
Fernando Farre '94: Rising Star Award
Having spent the last three years in Argentina as a marketing manager for I:Oreal, Farre
recently transferred to I:Oreal's New York office to serve as the international marketing manager
for Ralph Lauren Fragrances. He handles the Polo, Polo Sport, and Romance brands and is work­ing
to develop new markets in Latin America, Canada, and the duty-free Americas. A past
Fullbright Scholarship recipient and Career Management
Center employee, Farre was instrumental in helping
Thunderbird orchestrate its recent successful Thunderbird
Global Business Forum in Latin America.
The Rising Star Award is given to an alumnus who graduated
less than 10 years ago but is taking his or her field by stonn.
On the Business Side: Homecoming is so
much more than fun I
Work hard. Play hard. It's a Thunderbird mandate. That's
why Thunderbird always offers educational opportunities as
a part of Homecoming. This year, in addition to its half-day
Thunderbird Global Business Forum, the School also offered
its first-ever 21/2-day alumni Executive Education course.
Called Global Issues '99, the program offered an important
global business update and attracted 28 participants. The
course got rave reviews. (Read more about it in "A Program
for Every Need," a Thunderbird Executive Education feature
on Page 17.)
The Thunderbird Global Business Forum offered insights
into how to assess and minimize professional and personal
risk globally.
"Such assessments require a lot more than hunches or
assumptions," said keynote speaker Luis Alberto Moreno '77,
Ambassador of Colombia to the United States. "They depend
upon solid research, and an understanding of the subject that
goes far beyond what you pick up in The Econamist or The
Wall Street Journal. And when you first think of Colombia,
you probably don't see it as Latin America's strongest per­forming
economy over the last several decades-which it is.
Instead, you might think about cocaine or the drug cartels, or Pablo Escobar and kidnappings. This is
inevitable-it's what you see on TV or read in the papers. But such assumptions will only get in your
way of making an educated assessment about, say, investment in Colombia-like turning away from
the booming Chicago commodities market of the 1920s because of prohibition and Al Capone."
Moreno went on to paint a picture of the 'real Colombia,' through a brief lesson in history, geogra­phy
and economics. He outlined the initiatives of the present government, political as well as eco­nomic,
and gave forum participants a sense of where Colombia is heading.
"The centerpiece of the Pastrana administration is Plan Colombia, a comprehensive strategy whose
central purpose is to strengthen and modernize the entire gamut of our institutions, at the national and
local level, " said Moreno. "Of course, our primary goal is to end the suffering that has affected too
many of our citizens and to bring hope and opportunity to those who have never had it At the same
time, we must also pay respect to the almost 200 years of dedication and pride that built the founda­tions
that have kept us prosperous even in adversity. Our present and future successes would be
unimaginable without it"
Thunderbird professor Dr. Mark Griffiths then detailed the use and impact of credit derivatives in
managing financial risk. (The full trnnscript of Moreno's speech and the PoweIpOint presentation from
Griffiths' presentation from the event can be viewed and downloaded from the Alumni My
Thunderbird intranet: http://www.alumni.my.t-bird.edu.)
Two panel discussions addressed COIpOrate and personal security. The first panel, Planning for
Emergencies, was moderated by Thunderbird professor Dr. John O'Connell, and included presenta­tions
by Pedro Ayala, director, disaster services for The American Red Cross; Brian Beeghly '96, an
international risk manager with NIKE, Inc.; and Dusty Scott '96, Thunderbird project manager and a
former U.S. Army officer. The second panel, Personal Security and Corporate Precautions, featured
Steve Novkov '69 of CIGNA International, Ken Krusenstema, president of Stand International, and
Rick Pitacco, manager of investigations for the western region of
Motorola Global Security Organization.
Class Gifts Support the Thunderbird Community
Additional Homecoming highlights included the presentation of
$70,050 by Class of '79 leaders. They had vowed to raise $100,000
from their class to help the School fund Alumni My Thunderbird.
Their initial $70,050 check represented the amount classmates had
enthusiastically pledged to date. In addition, Class of '72 leaders Ted
Fuller and Mac Messinger helped raise $35,000 from their class­mates
to purchase a world time clock for the tower of the
Thunderbird Commons. The clock pre-dedication ceremony was
held November 5.
John Cook, Annette cazenave,
Willie Cone, and Tom Hobson (at
right) present Thunderbird
President Roy A. Herberber Jr.
with a check symbolizing their
class' first donation toward the
funding of Alumni My
Thunderbird.
Joan and Ted Fuller '72 proudly
pose in front of an artisfs render­ing
of a world time clock that aass
ot '72 members donated for the
Thunderbird Commons.
Thunderbird alumni and ardent Thunderbird
Alumni Association (T AA) supporters Joy
Lubeck '86 and Chris Johnson '86 celebrate
final delivery of a TAA Global Board, four
regional T AA councils and Alumni My
Thunderbird rollout The two have worked
tirelessly during the last few years to rebuild
and strengthen the Thunderbird network.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000 31
Thooderbird Enhances Brand
Recognition in Latin America:
In Alliance with The Miami Herald Americas Conference
by Lindsey Michaels Aentinean President Carlos Menem was ushered in under tight security, seated
next to the four-star U.S. general in charge of Southern Hemisphere forces,
then introduced to an overflow crowd of nearly 500 people, who listened to
simultaneous translations in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Nearby,
nearly 100 U.S. and Latin America media jockeyed for coverage space. At other times,
attendees heard former presidents of Costa Rica and Colombia, the vice president of
Panama, The Miami Herald publisher, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, and dozens of
major industry leaders discuss Latin American issues at the Americas Conference.
The highly acclaimed, sold-out confer­ence
was held in Miami in October and
was hosted by The Miami Herald in asso­ciation
with Thunderbird. That strategic
partnership was one of several School ini­tiatives
designed to help Thunderbird
enhance its global brand identity. Ameri­cas
Conference visibility was especially
important given that Miami is such a signif­icant
gateway between the United States
and Latin America
"Now in its third year, the Americas
Conference already is one of the top
forums in the world on Latin America and
it can definitely become the top forum of
its type in North America," said Willy
Cone '79, general manager of The Miami
Herald, and the alumnus most responsible
for getting Thunderbird involved. "This
year was by far the best conference ever
and, as our publisher says, a great deal of
the credit goes to our partners, Thunder­bird
and the Council of the Americas. "
Thunderbird both promoted the event
and received a tremendous amount of pub­licity
from it. School officials distributed
conference materials at the Thunderbird
Global Business Forums in Argentina,
Brazil, and Chile last spring. They also ran
an advertisement in Thunderbird maga­zine
and promoted the event through
alumni groups. In return, Thunderbird was
mentioned prominently on event materials,
given an exhibit booth, allowed to suggest
speakers, and offered special registration
opportunities for its alumni.
One speaker, Diego Veitia '66, a suc­cessful
entrepreneur, literally created a
'run' on Thunderbird's exhibit booth when
he told the audience that American-style
entrepreneurship and a Thunderbird edu-
32 THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
cation were critical for Latin America's
economic prosperity. Hundreds of Thun­derbird
applications, viewbooks, alumni
magazines, and executive education and
MIMLA brochures were taken from the
booth immediately after Veitia's speech.
The School had a full team of marketing,
administration, executive education, devel­opment,
and alumni relations
personnel onsite to handle such
demand.
Thunderbird also hosted a
Latin American alumni reunion,
a Thunderbird Alumni Associa­tion
(TAA) Latin America
Regional Council meeting, and a
TAA Chapter Leaders' work­shop
immediately after the con­ference.
Then Argentinean
President Menem is
Keynote Speaker
Argentina's outgoing Presi­dent
Carlos Menem waxed
poetic as he began his retro­spective
keynote speech,
saying, " I am not Cervantes;
I'm Don Quixote." Menem
meant that he saw himself as
the dreamer, not as the per­son
charged with ultimately
judging his accomplish­ments-
as the person who
thought up creative solutions to the terri­ble
hyperinflation and other problems
Argentina faced when he took office.
Abruptly changing the tone, Menem later
lifted the room to laughter by humorously
holding up a copy of his autobiography
and shamelessly promoting it.
Menem was the keynote speaker at the
Americas Conference. He spoke in Span­ish,
apologizing for not speaking English,
French or any other language. He was
warm, self-effacing, and obviously admired
by the overwhelming majority of the more
than 500 people who jammed the Miami
Biltmore's main ballroom for his address.
Menem, whose presidential term ended
in December, said he is proud of what he
and his team had accomplished. He
believed they had analyzed the situation,
then plugged away at needed change.
While he said he wasn't leaving Argentina
in perfect shape, he felt he was leaving it
with a stable economy and strong
prospects.
(top) Former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria
is interviewed by a Spanish language television
station. (left) T-bird's heavily-visited conference
booth became a gathering place for alumni
between conference sessions. (right) Alumni
storm the reunion registration table.
First Latin American Alumni
Reunion Follows Conference
Some came to learn. Some came to play.
Some came to work. All got to reconnect
with Thunderbird when the School hosted
its first-ever Latin American Alumni
Reunion, which began at the conclusion of
the Americas Conference.
More than 50 Thunderbird alumni
attended that two-day conference, hearing
addresses by Argentinean President Car­los
Menem, former Costa Rican President
Rafael Calderon, former Columbian Presi­dent
Cesar Gaviria, and many others.
Reunion attendees began arriving at the
beautiful Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables
even before the conference ended. By 7
p.m. Friday, more than 170 alumni and
friends had assembled at a welcome
reception near the Biltmore's famous pool,
where Thunderbird President Roy A.
Herberger, Jr. offered a brief State of the
School address. The T-birds then departed
for various restaurants, only to reunite
back at the Biltmore for late night
Baccardi-sponsored beverages.
Saturday found reunion-goers shopping
at the famous Sawgrass Mills outlet stores,
cruising on Biscayne Bay, touring South
Beach's Art Deco, playing tennis or golf, or
swimming at the Biltmore's pool. But
Saturday also found two T-bird groups
hard at work indoors. The first was Thun­derbird's
newly formed TAA Latin America
Regional Council, which met the entire
day. The second was a group of TAA Chap­ter
Leaders, which met for half a day.
The Regional Council spent Saturday
morning learning all about the new Thun­derbird
from five senior School officials:
President Herberger, who discussed Thun­derbird's
new goals and education trends;
John Seybolt, senior vice president, Acade­mic
Affairs, who discussed the school's
expanded, more structured curriculum;
Bud Robyn, senior vice president, Execu­tive
Education, who talked about the
School's lifelong career training; Execu­tive-
In-Residence John Willie, who pre­viewed
the School's new branding plan;
and Jenny St. John, vice president, Exter­nal
Affairs, who discussed media rankings
and fund raising. Council members also got
a hands-on demonstration of Alumni My
Thunderbird (AMTB). They spent the
afternoon forming their council infrastruc­ture
and setting initial goals.
Thunderbird now sponsors four regional
(above left) Diego Veitia '66 created a run on
Thunderbird's booth by telling the audience that
Thunderbird's training was critical. (above) T-birds
Michael Lee '92 Hector Gorosabel '87, Fernando
Farre '94 and friends enjoy the reunion's final night
event.
(left) Julio Morriberon '71 of Peru, Maria Cedeno '93
of Venezuela, and Cedeno's mother, Ursula Quero,
enter the Reunion's welcoming reception.
(right) Miami Herald Publisher Alberto Ibargiien
and Roy Herberger celebrate the formation of a
mutually beneficial partnership.
TAA councils, plus a global board to pro­vide
better, more focused representation in
each region, since regions often face differ­ent
issues at different times. Council mem­bers
serve as liaisons between alumni and
the School. Their primary responsibility
involves reconnecting alumni in each
region to one another, to alumni in other
regions, and to Thunderbird. By so doing,
they also help Thunderbird provide the
types of lifelong services its alumni need.
Given that Chapter Leaders in each city
also will play a critical role in Thunder­bird's
alumni reconnection strategy, the
School also sponsored a Latin America
Chapter Leaders Workshop in Miami.
Eight leaders attended the half-day event,
dialoguing with School officials, trying out
AMTB, and forging friendships and strate­gies.
Thunderbird now boasts 150 alumni
chapters, more than 60 of which have been
formed in the past year.
Alumni interested in forming new chap­ters,
or strengthening existing ones, can
now obtain materials and help online
through AMTB in the TAA section.
Visit the alumni online community at
http://alumnLmy.t-bird.edu. •
Willy Cone '19 may be reached at
wcone@herald.com
The Miami
Herald's 2000
Americas
Conference will
be held
September
14-15 in Miami
in partnership
with
Thunderbird.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000 33
lj,lIlitil'r/Jli'ti I \l'lllflll' I r/llulfioll Are you a
GLOBAL BUSINESS
champion?
Not all companies have Global Business Champions­visionaries
who realize that proactively building global business
competencies inside their company's workforce is the key to
accelerated profits in a world economy. If you see yourself as a Global
Business Champion (manyT'birds do), here is a way to turn vision into reality:
Pick out one or two people in your company, and encourage them to find out more about
Thunderbird Executive Education's Global Management Programs for the Year 2000.
Simply tear out this page and hand it to them, or send them an e-mail encouraging them to visit
Thunderbird's mb site for global managers (www.t-bird.edu/execed/GLOBAL).
www.t-bird.edu/execed/global _:HEH~Eru~~U~;E~~OL
OF INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT
Executive Education
'48-'69
Sigmund Liberman '48 is now semi­retired,
living in Carrollton, TX with his
wife Lee. They have 5 grandchildren
and have traveled to Europe 3 times.
Thomas (Tom) B. Birch '51 is VP of
Investor ReI. at Blue Moon Capital in
Costa Mesa, CA. Jorge Carrera '51 is
with Transerco Inti. Ltd. in Phoenix, AZ.
Grant A. Settlemier '58 is Sr. VP at
Salomon, Smith Barney in San Fran­cisco.
He is still racing sailboats for St
Francis Yacht Club and travelling.
Robert "Bob" L. Fife '59 is now
retired and living in
Sarasota, FL. Glen H.
Glad '63 has retired
from Firestone Tire
and Rubber. He and
his wife Laura live in
Lakeland, FL. Charles
A. Lagergren '64 is an Inti. Training
Mgr. at Federal Mogul in St Louis, MO.
Clayson (Claris) W. Lyman'64 is
self-employed in Preventive Health Care
with RexalJ Showcase Inti. in Glendora,
CA. Phillip E. Wilken '65 is Pres. of
LCS Service in Rochester, MI. Joseph
J. Gunnell '66 owns GSI (Gunnell
Services, Inc.), a Financial Consulting
Firm in Ingleside, lL. Peter X. Habn
'66 is a Sales Rep. with the Sutherland
Group in Rochester, NY. Perry S.
Melton, Jr. '66 is Oir. of Ops. with
Maxiswitch, Inc. in Tucson, AZ. Robert
S. Eichfeld '67 is the Managing Oir. of
Saudi American Bank in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia Barry M. Beyer '68 is selling
power generation units packaged by
S&S Energy Products in Houston, TX.
John E. Massae '68 is an Inspector
with Index Research Services, Inc. in
Redding, CA. William "Bill" C.
Mattison '68 is a Sr. VP at Bank of
America in Miami, FL. John J . Verity
'68 is OwnerIMgr. of Pacific Steel
Fabricators Inc. in Boise, ID. Paul V.
Von Schoeler '68 is Pres. of Admin.
Systems Inc. in Columbus, OH. Fred D.
Bloom '69 recently moved to
Sacramento where he is Oir., Asia­Pacific
with GMI West LLC. Steven
C. Burrell '69 is a Process Plant
Contracting and Project Oev.
Advisor in Beaconsfield, England.
Carl N. Holmes '69 is an Office
Ops. Mgr. with Ford Motor
Company in Carrollton, TX.
Manfred L. Locher '69 is semi­retired
and recently moved with his
wife Angelika from Munich to the
Bavarian countryside. Barry
Soloff '69 is now with Ouracell Inc.
in Bethel, CT.
'70-'75
Charles E. Johanson '70 is Gen.
CounsellSecretary with Telegroup
Inc. in Fairfield, lA. Carol
(Swiston) Kelley '70 and her hus­band
James live in San Diego, CA.
Pavel F. Kriz '70 is a mkt commu­nications
consultant for the automo­tive
industry for the InterCom
-
PDATES
ONE WORLD. ONE CAMP
Wondering where the kids would go during the summer
break? Join the variegated group of children from all over
the world at Terry Shand's '72 World Sports Camp in
Rhode Island! This is the only summer camp that offers an opportu­nity
for boys and girls between the ages of 10 and 16 to come
together to experience expert sports coaching in basketball, golf, ten­nis
and football (soccer), improve English language skills, travel to
amusement and water parks, go white-water rafting or sightseeing in
New England, and participate in inter-camp sports competition.
Shand's passion for sports and love for coaching merged with his
desire to be involved in
international business and management. That is how the World
Sports Camp concept came about. Every summer campers from more
than 17 countries come together to play sports in a safe, exciting and
fun-filled environment.
"I truly love what I do," says Shand. "Being able to orchestrate the
getting along of many individuals from diverse backgrounds is very
satisfying." No camper from abroad has ever been turned away due
to the lack of funds. Shand and his team are committed to finding a
solution in each case when a camper wants to attend the World
Sports Camp program.
HI did not want to become a player in my own backyard of the busi­ness
world. Instead, I wanted to make the world my backyard!" Shand
said. "I truly desire to see all children, all peoples of the world come
together in a unified effort to improve commerce and world peace.
For me, sports was a good place to start. Children all over the world
want the same: to learn, play in a safe environment, and have fun.
Check out Shand's Web site at www.worldsportscamp.com
Tatiana Poliakova
Group in Prague. Roger H. Youel '70
is a Mgr. with GE Capital in Franklin,
TN. Robert F. Ainslie '71 is Pres. of
Sino-American Investments in Encinitas,
CA. Francisco Enriquez '71 is Pres.
and CEO of U.S. Purification Systems de
Mexico SA de C.V. in Tijuana, Mexico.
Thomas W. Lehmer '71 is Chairman
and CEO at World Web Markets in
Anaheim, CA. Glenn A. Smith,

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Full Text

THUNDERBIRD. THE AMERICAN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT • VOLUME 53. NUMBER 2. 2000
Come
Toget1\er!
Technology Shrinks our World
Thunderbird Marketing:
This is a draft composite of an ad for Thunderbird
The completed advertisements will be appearing soon in major publications.
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School Defines Branding Strategy
It has been one of the world's best kept secrets-small,
unknown, all but buried in the arid southwestern United States.
Beginning in 1946, thousands have come, learned, and left,
nomadically crisscrossing the globe and nearly every major indus­try.
All along the way, they find and befriend talented young pe0-
ple, then all but whisper: "Hey, why don't you go to Thunderbird."
Thunderbird has never before embarked on a worldwide market-ing
campaign, let alone leveraged its alumni base or formed a full­fledged
branding strategy. Now, all that is changing.
Thunderbird has long been recognized as the top-ranked international business school in the
United States, and one of the best in the whole world. But in recent years, Thunderbird's
brand equity has faced the threat of erosion in the wake of offerings by larger, university­based
business schools touting their uglobalness."
"Rapid globalization of industries and the advent of ecommerce has dramatically changed
the education field," said Roy A. Herberger, Jr. president of Thunderbird. "Today, there are, lit­erally,
hundreds of other schools out there on the Web saying, 'We're global and we're the
best at something: It was time to stand up and tell the world, 'We are Thunderbird and this is
exactly who and what we are:"
"T-birds are so mobile and successful that the outside world often perceives
Thunderbird as being right up there with the 'big boys' in terms of brand perception,"
said John Willie, the executive-in-residence responsible for the revitalization of
Thunderbird's brand. "But the truth is, our revenue is incredibly low compared to the
competitive company we keep. So we can't plaster the world with high-priced ads;
we have to out-innovate the competition by utilizing the alumni assets-and all
those traits T-birds are famous for."
And yet. the School has this month begun strategically placing ads similar to the
mock-up at the left, which feature real T-birds in world settings and highlight our lan­guage,
cultural and business emphasis. The ads are meant to convey to the world the
core idea of what it really means to be a T-bird. That message is encapsulated by the
brand strategy Willie and a team of students came up with after conducting in-depth
market research with alumni, students, faculty, and non-Thunderbird executives.
The overall marketing brand strategy is "Lifelong Global Positioning." To illustrate
this concept. Willie pointed out the way in which global positioning systems [GPS]
utilize satellites to pinpoint a spot on the earth's surface .
"It takes at least three satellites to locate any point on the Earth," said Willie. He
likens Thunderbird's offerings to three satellites, representing information, knowl­edge
and the Thunderbird alumni network.
·Put all three together, and we can help our customers with their lifelong learning
needs throughout their lifetimes; said Willie .
The centerpiece of Thunderbird Lifelong Global Positioning will be the
school's web site: http://www.t-bird.edu, which is now being ::o'l>
redesigned to be compatible with our brand strategy. 0
·Our customers will be able to tap into Thunderbird's global network ')
to fulfill nearly every business need-whenever they need it- ~~
throughout their careers, and from anywhere c.,
in the world," said Willie. ~
• •• • •
Lindsey Michaels
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• • • • • • •
THUNDERBIRD. THE AMERICAN GRADUATE SCHOOL OF INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT • VOLUME 53. NUMBER 2. 2000
-OVER STORIES
4 It's an eWORLD After All
Although Walt Disney's famous 'small
world' phrase was mostly right, it has
turned out to be more of an 'eworld'
after all.
12 Global Supply Chains
Go Virtual
Thunderbird's Dr. William E. Youngdahl
shows how virtual supply chains are
breaking time and space conventions.
14 Global Sourcing
Tab Tsukuda '95 (EMIM) illustrates
exactly how global sourcing policies
affect the bottom line.
16 Supply Chain
Management
Becomes an Art
Good global sourcing strategies control
corporate destiny-which is why
companies like Holeywell and Ford are
turning to Thunderbird.
-EATUHES
1 THUNDER WHO?
Thunderbird defines its brand strategy
and embarks on a worldwide marketing
campaign.
3 ALUMNI COMMUNITY RECONNECTS
It's called Alumni My Thunderbird and
more than 6,000 alumni are already maxi­mizing
this power online tool. Are you?
17 A PROGRAM FOR EVERY NEED
Lifelong learning takes many forms, and
Thunderbird's highly ranked Executive
Education programs are addressing
a surprisingly-broad array.
28 HOMECOMING 1999 OFFERED
VENUES FOR ALL
Nearly 500 Alumni flocked back to
Thunderbird for Homecoming ... for the
workshops, the social functions and at
least one visit to the Pub.
32 FIRST LATIN AMERICAN REUNION
FOLLOWS HIGHLY ACCLAIMED
AMERICAS CONFERENCE
A strategic alliance with The Miami
Herald strengthens Thunderbird's brand
image in Latin America
- EPARTMENTS
20 LETTER FROM ELSEWHERE
Not British, Not Chinese:
Hong Kong must redefine its
identity, says Meredith Peabody
'96 (EMIM).
22 EYES AROUND THE WORLD
Messenger of Peace: Madame
Jehan Sadat, the widow of slain
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat,
shared her warmth during an
extended pre-Ramadan visit to
Thunderbird.
24 CAMPUS NEWS
26 NETWORK NEWS
35 UPDATES
I j,11!!1/('I'/)irl/ ,\ 11.1.lio!! ,~ltlll'l!!I'!!1
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1J1111l,{()/'/i/(1I/ //('('(/1
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Visit Thunderbird at
www.t-bird.edu
Alunmi Conununity Recormects
by Jessica McCann
It's a desire that crosses many cultures, a feeling shared
around the globe. It's the wish to be part of a "commu­nity"
-to connect with people who share your interests,
beliefs and goals. You already belong to a unique commu­nity
of internationalists. And, now, a lifelong connection
with other members of that community is only a "click" away.
Last November, Thunderbird embarked on a new era of com­munication
when it launched an online community for alumni,
Alumni My Thunderbird CAMTB). This free service offers T­birds
lifetime email, discussion groups, job postings, School
news, and a search feature that allows them to locate fellow
your interests, where you work, how you can be reached. You
can even add links to your personal or corporate websites."
Within this password-protected online community, alumni
have several tools to help them stay in touch with their far-flung
friends and colleagues. The T-bird Network Search allows them
to find old friends (and new ones) based on search criteria they
choose. Discussion groups keep the lines of communication
open on a variety of topics. Hundreds of groups already have
been formed, ranging in topic from "Job Exchange" and
"Mergers and Acquisitions" to "Global Sounds" and "Regional
issues in Latin America" Using Lifetime email, T-birds ensure
alumni by name, class year, geographic location,
job function and industry. More than 6,000
alumni have already registered and
Alumni they'll stay in touch regardless of where their
travels may take them.
begun using the system to stay con­nected
with one another and the School
"This is a very cool, value-added feature.
rve already looked up most of my close friends from School and
am making contact with people I haven't seen in years," com­mented
Jeff Schlueter '90, who was among the first to sign on.
Thousands of recent graduates have already experienced
what the first phase of My Thunderbird could accomplish on
campus for students, faculty and staff. It has provided an exclu­sive
forum for discussion, a way to stay up-to-date with campus
news, and a method for easily exchanging information. Future
graduates will experience a seamless transition from the cam­pus
intranet to the second phase of My Thunderbird, the alumni
online community. Their logon IDs and passwords will remain
the same, and the switchover will happen instantly. Yet, with all
the alumni community has to offer, grads will find even more
value in My Thunderbird than before.
"With the 'Personalize' feature, you control what personal
information alumni get to see when they search for fellow T­birds
online. And the more information you choose to share, the
more valuable this networking tool becomes," explained Joy
Lubeck '86, assistant vice president of alumni relations for
Thunderbird. "You can personalize your proffie as much or as lit­tle
as you choose-tell other alumni about yourself,
"Since our buddies often fly off to dif­ferent
parts of the world upon gradua­tion,
this is the only way we can stay in
touch," said TIm Sultan '96.
In addition to its networking features, AMTB is also a con­tent-
rich website that is updated regularly. It includes informa­tion
about School-offered programs, services and alumni
discounts. The Start Page features news items that highlight
upcoming events, School and T-bird achievements, volunteer
opportunities, and more. Other areas include photos and high­lights
from Thunderbird events, a campus photo gallery, and a
"Reading Room" with articles and speech transcripts from
alumni, students, faculty, and guest dignitaries and speakers.
The School's technology development team also is already
working on improvements to AMTB. Based on feedback
received from alumni, some enhancements were implemented
within weeks of the launch-refined tutorial and help features,
an enhanced logon page and process, and new industry and job
function categories for alumni searches. Other, more dramatic,
enhancements will be part of an AMTB 2.0 package expected to
rollout by summer 2000. The 2.0 version will include new fea­tures
for alumni to create and customize their own areas on
AMTB, new Thunderbird Alumni Association (TAA) Chapter
and Regional Council sections, Chapter Pages, simplified
'Personalize' features, and more.
"We want this to be a tool alumni will eqjoy using, and will
use often, to stay connected to the Thunderbird community,"
said Joe McVicker '98, Thunderbird's director of applica­tion
development. "In the short time AMTB has been up
and running, we've received hundreds of suggestions
from alumni for ways to further improve the sys­tem.
We take that feedback seriously and intend
to continue working with the Alumni Rela­tions
Office to make this a tool our alumni
can't live without. "
Sign on today at
http://alumni.my.t-bird.edu. •
Joe McVICker '98 (left), Thunderbird's director
My Thunderbird to Argentina Chapter
Sasagu Usui '95 during the Chapter
Conference at the Latin America
in Miami.
By LINDSEY MICHAELS
hirty years ago an 'eticket' was the coveted coupon
that got you on the best of Disney's rides-and the
Internet had just been born. Today, the Internet is
the planet's hottest ride, and an 'eticket' is an elec­tronic
airline pass. And although Uncle Walt's famous 'small
world' phrase was mostly right, it's turned out to be more of an
'eworld' after all.
The Internet revolution will almost certainly change modern
life and commerce more significantly than anything since the
Industrial Age began. It has nearly limitless potential. Now that
the secret's out peo­ple
around the world
are asking: "How do I
prepare?"
"The Internet is as important as the invention of the television or telephone, but much more
valuable," said 1ravis Good '84, vice president of technology and operations, America Online
(AOL) International. "Unlike anything in history, it's touching and changing every comer of our
lives."
According to Good, the Internet is prompting two fundamental changes to people's lives. "It's
letting you keep in touch with whomever, whenever-n:,umer aspect. Inta'net and thars
the Internet., But thft's only a fraction of
InjiMlt 41111_4Iref)usfr. olM!ratio...wJJe part that oct that
For instance, a General site could see special GE orM!' ill' p I
.,jIl .... about which "del:, Gle:tr'efers.'IHIs:i~ht~""~.!!!J~ guided or restricted electron i­THUNDERBIRD
53 /2/ 2000
level coded so that they could order
.horizat:ion to order different ones.
subWiltractolrs, who forward them to UPS,
The Internet also allows for
which lists 80 countries. Customers select
one and, in most cases, are transported
into a local language site. Each site has the
same 'standard' look and feel, although
depth-of-site and product promotions are
determined by one of four regional Dell
teams. AOL, on the other hand, has
expanded by creating partnerships, allow­ing
each to create a unique AOL seIVice for
its locale.
"Since being global is crucial to our suc­cess,
we use a joint venture international
expansion strategy," said Good. "AOL
brings the technology, the brand, and the
know-how, but together with our local
partner, we select a team that is almost 100
percent made up of people from that coun­try,
people who are going to understand the
personal preferences of the local people as
well as their preferred business style. "
Another critical Web issue involves 'dri­ving'
people to one's site. The bottom line
is that the optimal marketing mix often dif­fers
from country to country-and by cus­tomer.
Dell, for instance, uses direct mail
heavily.
"What we find," Berksan said, "is that
people often come to our site from cata­logs-
especially our business clients. On
average, they visit five times before they
buy. And even then, some are more com­fortable
picking up the telephone." Thus,
Dell provides a telephone order number
on most sites.
Dell also offers custom sites for key
business and government clients, which is
important since they account for 70 per­cent
of Dell's business. (See sidebar)
"One of the things we find that's quite
effective is 'sticky content, '" said Per
Huge-Jensen'94, director of new busi­ness
development at Fry Multimedia, a
Michigan-based full-seIVice Internet and
application development firm that boasts
retail giants like Godiva Chocolatier, Eddie
Bauer, Crate & Barrel, 1-800-Flowers.com,
and Harrods among its clientele. "For
instance, people create a 'wish list' from
that site and email it to friends and family.
Or, they participate in sweepstakes where
they have to register, or sign up for 'opt-in'
emails about upcoming promotions and
products." According to Huge-Jensen, his
company averages a 20 percent response
rate on targeted emails.
Sean Judge '94, Fry's director of sales,
added, "The Internet is all about 'relation­ship
marketing,' about personalizing the
shopper's start up page based upon infor­mation
they've already given-or that
you've captured. It's also about conve-
THUNDERBIRD 53 12 / 2000
Global Sales
Unleash the power of the Internet to harness international sales opportunities. Contact Dave Carlson (class of 185)
at Net Works Communications (1 .877.850.9300) or visit us on the web at www.networkscom .com .
• electronic commerce
• database integration
powered bye§ ™
• internet marketing • web site design
• intranet/extranet • web site hosting
Net . orks®
COMMUN i CATIONS
• global logistics
• legacy integration
www.networkscom.com Toll free : 1.877.850.9300 Outside the US: ( I )303 .850.9300 Fax:303 .850.9383 profits@networkscom .com
• •• • • •
how much to invest nd how best to levailge new technology?
UEo merce is such an
en ous undertaking that
the typical questions abou
ho to udget don't apply."
i,;.j! .... tMim .. g ... gij ... ",n@.¥"'A'W;",i,,q?Ui'itttiDmmii.,,, .. rumm,,,,,.
nience." Judge cautioned that "the product
should only be one click away from the
buy" and added that, "based upon our sta­tistics,
visitors only click 1.8 pages deep
into a site." That fact, he said, forces you
to build sites that immediately convey a
sense of trust, create a relationship, offer
ease of use, and entice the visitor to make
a purchase.
Fry has been building upon these princi­ples
since mid-1994 when the company
deployed one of the first ecommerce con­sumer
packaged goods site on the Internet
complete with today's popular 'shopping
cart' functionality. "Today we are seeing
more and more of our clients using usabil­ity
studies to perform tests on the informa­tion
architecture, navigation and buying
process to get the most possible out of
their sites." This all adds up to significant
investments by Fry's clients, upwards of
US$8 million to $12 million per year for
Web initiatives.
Judge and Huge.Jensen are quick to add
that the discovery and needs assessment
phases are the most critical of any Internet
project. Taste, tariff, taxation, and fulfill­ment
issues are but a few. For instance,
would someone in Greece get in to Godiva?
And how would you market fresh-cut flow­ers
to Frankfurt? Or deliver computers to
Senegal? Even if you sort out the tariff and
taxation issues involved in getting your
products sold, what's your plan for han­dling
service claims or customer returns?
Dell addresses those issues by dividing
the world into districts. In the United
States., consumer orders are shipped from
Nashville, Tenn., while business orders are
tracked from its Austin, Texas plant.
Overseas, orders are sent from the appro­priate
plant in Brazil, China, Ireland or
Singapore. Each plant configures models
specifically for its client groups-a fact
that has thwarted many an otherwise com­puter
savvy traveler. After all, it's tough to
decipher fonts when they're displayed in
Arabic or screens that convince you that
the machine before you was made on Mars.
"Here in Japan, our computers are con­figured
to use the double byte systems for
Kanji characters, not the single byte sys­tem
you see in the U.S.," explained Kenji
Fujisawa '95, who is a strategic planning
manager in Japan for Dell. "The Japanese
market is also very different. For people
who commute by car and who have big
offices, it's difficult to understand why
SONY's light and handy B-5-size VAIO has
been the best selling PC in Japan. But we
commute by train or walk and have small
offices. Fortunately Dell just introduced a
B-5-size Notebook."
Luckily, the Internet itself makes track­ing
tariffs and taxes easier since both data
and figures can be pre-programmed and
quickly changed. "100 percent of the more
than 4,000 suppliers that advertise with us
each month on Asian Sources Online are
connected," said Jim Strachan, executive
director of Asian Sources, "even the 800
companies that are based in China" Asian
Sources, which is owned by T-bird Merle
Hinrichs '66, who helped Thunderbird
build its heavily data-driven library, has
long been the leader facilitating Asia's
business-to-business trade with the world.
The company began with print, then added
its asiansources.com site in 1995. Hinrichs'
company recently established a new site,
called globalsources.com, to extend the
business model globally.
"Asian Sources primarily helped global
buyers and Asian-based suppliers find
each other," Strachan said. The suppliers
pay a monthly fee and get a marketing Web
MAY THE WEB BE WITH YOU!
"Traditionally, movies that are advertised
on the Web are one shot deals. They come
and go," said Jim Ward '83, vice president
of marketing for Lucasfilm, Ltd. "The Star
Wars site is already 2,000 pages deep and
going strong. But then, Star Wars has 22
years of equity. "
Besides its successful films and Web site,
Lucasfilm also boasts the two largest down­load
events in history. The company began
using the Web as a way of continuing a daily
dialogue with its fans and it was a big hit.
When Ward launched the first Episode I
trailer on the Web site, excitement flared and
five million people downloaded that clip
within the week-a total of ten million
within the month. A second trailer was
downloaded 25 million times.
Ward said that since Lucasfilm is a 'film
content' company, he doesn't have immedi­ate
plans for translating the bulk of the Star
Wars site. "We translated the film into 16 lan­guages,
but we don't anticipate doing any
deep site translations for right now," he said.
"For one thing, it's very costly. For another,
the majority of our audience is still in the
U.S." Ward added that 90 percent of its Star
Wars site visits come from the U.S. while the
remaining ten percent come from Japan,
Germany, the U.K, and Australia. Lucasfilm
has, however, translated the Star Wars home
page into six languages to make site naviga­tion
easier.
"You might be surprised to learn that our
Web site actually created challenges," he
said. "The Web truly represents the democra­tization
of information. It's instantaneous
and instantly accessible. The site was so well
visited by U.S. and foreign press that every­one
around the world got the same market­ing
messages at the same time. Since we
usually roll out movies at different times
around the world, we had to start our world­wide
marketing way before we normally
would have
planned. Gone
forever are the
days of the tradi­tional
movie
press release,"
he said. "From
now on we'll just
post most of the
information on
our Web site."
Jim Ward and his
wife Dawne are both
T-bird graduates.
THUNDERBIRD 53 12 I 2000
site hosted on the Asian Sources portal.
Asian Sources Online developed the repu­tation
as being so comprehensive that any
company that needed an Asian-based sup­plier
knew the Asian Sources site was
pretty much a one-stop shop.
Today, the globalsources.com Web site
is taking that one better. It offers a grow­ing
database of suppliers from throughout
the world, accessible in global, regional,
country, industry-specific or the private
Buyer Catalog customized format. "Global
sourcing is growing even more important
to retail buyers and other importers. We
add value by helping them leverage our
network to fmd the best deal globally,»
Strachan said. But moving forward the real
value is substantially enhanced.
"Historically, the import buying process
has been mostly paper based. Our next
generation will help companies communi­cate
and exchange transaction documents
electronically. Information won't have to
be rekeyed-which makes it time consum­ing
and error prone. It's just a massive
transformation of the way international
business will get done. »
Even though the Web makes finding and
buying items easier, shipping to and servic­ing
customers remain complex. While
companies like FedEx and UPS offer state­of-
the-art online package tracking in the
United States and most regions, delivery
and tracking remain more challenging
abroad. So does service. While Dell's
Berksan said that each Dell system has a
unique service tag number that customers
can enter online for diagnostic help, online
service capabilities do differ by region.
The truth is, it's still easier to deliver
information than products on the Web.
In many areas, regulatory issues, cus­toms,
and logistics present as big a chal­lenge
as implementing the technology
itself. "By and large, the technology for
doing local and even cross-border trading
throughout the world already exists,» said
Bea Calo '82, director of international
business strategy for E*TRADE. E*TRADE
is an online trading company that allows
ordinary people in the United States,.
Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom,
Japan, France and Sweden to manage
their own portfolios by giving them online
access to information about securities that
are traded on their country's exchange.
With E*TRADE, investors also execute
their own trades with a 'click'
Calo said that E*TRADE chose Canada
and Australia as its fIrst two expansion
spots, primarily because of language and
10 THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
cultural similarities. Yet, as with any inter­national
entity, there were issues. "The
whole concept of individual investing and
self-managed investments is very new out­side
of the U.S.," she said. "So is the com­fort
level involved in doing your own
research, then telling a machine to do what
a live broker used to do." In Australia, for
instance, where the country's entire stock
market only generates about the same vol­ume
as E*TRADE itself, investors found all
of the American-style charts, graphs, and
analysis tools too overwhelming. "Their
United States, an estimated 90 percent of
businesses with more than 500 employees
have T-1 access, whereas only about five
percent of the smaller ones do. Even peo­ple
in rural America are at risk, since 86
percent of Internet capability is concen­trated
in the nation's 20 largest cities. That
figure is even worse in Latin America and
other regions that don't have sophisticated
communications infrastructures. Thus,
even though someone might be 'online,'
don't assume that they 'surf the net and
shop just like Americans. The reality is
comment was, 'This is too
complicated. It's too much.'
So, we've learned to add
features slowly in each
country."
THE WIRED WORLD
that most might only sign
on every fourth day or
so-and then, just for a
few minutes at a time.
AOI:s Good understands
the challenges Calo faces.
"Every country has its own
timeline for widespread
adaptation of the Internet,"
he said. "There's a certain
point at which this mass 'ah
ha!' takes place. Where the
average customer says,
'Wow! I really need this!' It's
all about timing. If you get
in too early, you're just
wasting money. But get in
too late and you face well­entrenched
competitors
and it will cost you more. "
An estimated 201 million
people were online world·
wide as of September, 1999,
according to Nua Internet
Surveys. Here's the best
guess as to a regional break·
down.
But just like the Berlin
Wall, Internet entry barri­ers
will fall and that 'mass
ah ha' will come-market
by market. Will you be
ready? New satellite and
cable technologies are
already coming into play,
Canada & USA 112.4 million
as are new delivery vehi­cles.
AOI:s Good said that
Internet and email access
are already available to
some degree through tele­visions,
cell phones, and
Palm Pilots. Gas pump
access is coming soon.
Someday having wrist­watch
access isn't even
that farfetched.
" ~pe
,"Asia/Pacific
'",,*"
, lati;{America
Africa
Middle East
47.15 million
33.61 million
5.29 million
1.72 million
0.88 million
Issues that affect that
'mass ah ha!' are pretty sim­www.
nua.com
ilar even if adaptation rates differ. One of
the most obvious initial qualifiers-at least
for now-is PC access. Computer costs
are still considered somewhat prohibitive
in most countries, as are telephone and
service provider connection costs. Thus,
initial access in most countries begins at
work-where people tend to start with
email access, then advance to intranets,
then Internet service providers (ISPs) like
AOL. Schools are another common 'con­tact'
point, which means that children who
reside in countries-and even U.S.
regions-with relatively poor education
systems still fall behind.
The good news is that the Internet frenzy
keeps snowballing as understanding
heightens and rates fall. In Germany, for
instance, it only took AOL about one-half
the time to reach the million-subscriber
mark as it took in the United States.
Bandwidth and connectivity issues are
also of concern. Companies without the
faster-loading but much more costly T-1
phone lines lose market edge. In the
"The Internet will eventually become
transparent and we'll live in a world
where service, convenience and informa­tion
access are paramount," Good said.
"That used to bother me because I
thought it would make the world homoge­nous.
But the Internet is doing just the
opposite. It's letting every color in the
rainbow represent itself, every small cul­ture
or dying language reach the world,
every product that's only needed by 1,000
people find its niche. That's the real power
of the Web." •
email addresses:
Travis Good '84, TravisGood@aol.com
Annette Berksan'77,
annette_berksan@dell.com
Per Huge-Jensen'94, perhj@frymulti.com
Sean Judge '94, sjudge@frymulti.com
Kenji Fujisawa '95, strachan@global­sources.
com
Bea (alo '82, bcalo@etrade.com
Jim Ward '83, jim.ward@lucasfilm.com
THUNDERBIRD 53 12 1 2000 11
12
by William E. Youngdahl, Ph.D.,
assoc. professor, operations management
The bricks-and-mortar to ecom­merce
transformation occurring
throughout the globe positions the
new millennium as an era in which
business models will drive supply chain
capabilities to new levels. The ability to
place products in virtual shopping baskets
and have them appear at a front door in a
few days is just the beginning. Mass CllS­tomization
exemplified by Dell Computer
Corporation's direct model created and
continues to create customers as configu­rators-
we as customers want and even
demand to configure products and seIVices
to meet our own unique needs. The over­whelming
growth in ecommerce enabled
by Web-based order entry and custom con­figuration
drives a whole new way of think­ing
about the global 'virtual' supply chains
required to manufacture and deliver prod­ucts
and manage informational and finan­cial
flows along dynamic networks, even
communities, of suppliers and customers.
The current revolution in global supply
chain management pushes the limits of the
meaning of virtual-capturing the desired
essence or effect without the burden of
conventional notions of reality. That is, vir­tual
supply chains deliver products and
seIVices to customers while breaking con­ventions
of time and space.
The Velocity of Inventory
Michael Dell's direct business model
shines as an exemplar of virtual supply
chain management. He dispelled funda­mental
assumptions underlying supply
chains by asking the simple question, "If
we want to earn higher returns, shouldn't
we be more selective and put our capital
into activities where we can add value for
our customers, not just into activities that
need to get done?" A decade ago, com­puter
manufacturers firmly believed that
making components constituted an inte­gral
capability that served as a source of
competitive advantage; some still do. Dell
eI\ioys all of the flexibility of ownership by
establishing information-enabled relation­ships
with capable suppliers while avoid­ing
the shackles of capital outlay.
Dell focuses on the velocity rather than
quantity of inventory. By working with reli­able
suppliers such as Sony, Dell can actu­ally
manage zero inventory in some cases.
It does so by leveraging such innovations
THUNDERBIRD 53 I 2 I 2000
as using UPS to match computers from
Austin with monitors from Sony's factory
in Mexico. The bundled packages are then
shipped directly to the customer. Close
coordination with suppliers and cus­tomers
via extranets replaces inventory
with information.
Supplier Power = Consumer Power
While most are familiar at a basic level
with the workings of the direct model, we
recently stepped out of the box to ponder
the future of automobile buying and the
value chains associated with this future.
Last year, Ewan Gillespie, an MlM student
in a Corporate Partners course at Thun­derbird
developed a futurist scenario
describing an automobile purchase. An
excerpt follows:
"Put the salesman in the back seat."
Jane muttered autobuy's TV jingle as the
cable modem quickly brought the multi­media
site to life. Knowing she wanted
something to show that she had moved up
in the world, Jane clicked on the sporty
two-seater zooming around the screen. A
message came up asking which she
wanted to choose first, the inside systems
or the body. She knew that, from a perfor­mance
standpoint, it was best to start from
the inside and then choose a body that
matched, but she wanted to make a fash­ion
statement So she clicked "Body."
Jane could see how she would look
inside each model, because the digital
camera mounted on her computer display
had taken two pictures that allowed the
site to map a 3D rendering of her face onto
Supply Challis Go VIrtual is from bricks and mortar to ecommerce
or the other way around. Also, what type
of Customer Relationship Management
(CRM) Information Technology (IT) infra­structure
will be needed to support pur­chases
and track customer preferences?
How will this play out across cultures?
the mock driver. Although a few of the
newer styles were tempting, Jane loved
the retro models from past decades. She
was tom between the '90s and the '60s, so
she spent several minutes comparing dif­ferent
models in various simulated envi­ronments.
Finally, it was the 3D rendering
of the '64 Mustang gliding over a winding
mountain road that grabbed her. "Perfect!"
she said.
Having settled on the basic style, she
needed to choose a color. The "InfiniColor"
system let her see herself in the Mustang in
a mind-boggling selection of colors, but she
quickly went for the Classic Red.
Next, she moved on to the guts of the car.
The car was made up of ten different mod­ules,
and several manufacturers had ver­sions
of each one. Prices were displayed
next to every choice. Although autobuy.­com
offered detailed information on each
system to allow an informed choice, Jane
chose to zip over to ConsumerReports.org
to get the low-down. The seIVice cost $10,
but Jane was happy she did it. For example,
she noticed that the cheaper transmission
from Transco had some reliability prob­lems,
so she decided to shell out the extra
hundred for the higher-rated VIsteon model.
But she didn't need any advice when it
came to the engine. Everybody knew that
Lakemens was best. Although the Lake­mens
450 MV6 was almost twice the price
of the respectable Nissan 333, she consoled
herself with the five percent discount she
received for agreeing to put the "Lakemens
at Work" logo on the driver-side door.
Ten minutes later, Jane had selected the
remaining modules and secondary options,
and she viewed a detailed picture of her
handiwork with considerable satisfaction.
But she still had to think about the deliv­ery
option. Standard delivery? Or, could
she wait an extra four weeks for the
Brazilian assembled version, which was
$500 cheaper? Or, did she want to pay a
$600 surcharge and have it in two days?
Feeling a bit guilty about that pricey
Lakemens 450, she decided to forego the
fast delivery and settle for the standard
one-week delivery.
After clicking through the financing, a
message appeared advising Jane of an
incoming call from autobuy.com. Jane
accepted, and the welcoming face of a
middle-aged woman appeared on the
screen. "Hi! I'm Beth," said the lady in a
friendly Australian accent. "Great choice,
and thanks for using autobuy.com. You can
pick up your new car next Wednesday at
the Car Country Megalot on Central. lf you
have a trade-in, bring it down, or John can
pick you up in our shuttle. And remember
our famous guarantee: If you're not com­pletely
satisfied with your new car, just
bring it back in the original condition
within five days for a full refund."
She looked down at her dog, Mitts, and
said, "How about that mountain road next
2. Does the vision for the future build
from an operational Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP) System? ERP systems
such as RJ3 from SAP facilitate enterprise­wide
sharing of data. While such systems
have been costly to implement, the bene­fits
of shared data provide a necessary
platform for coordinating enterprise
efforts on a global basis. Without some
form of ERP, global enterprises often find
inter-business unit communication across
homegrown 'legacy' IT systems
By working to be extremely difficult or
Wednesday?"
Far fetched? Perhaps not.
Since the scenario was writ­ten,
GM and Ford have
announced sweeping initia­tives
to integrate customers'
ecommerce buying experi­ences
with networked sup­plier
communities around the
globe. They are stopping
short of mass customization
with reliable impossible.
3. How will we manage the
suppliers such inter-enterprise integration to
as Sony, Dell can optimize flow of material,
information, and payments?
actually manage This is the crux of global supply
zero inventory chain management. As organi­in
some cases. zations such as FedEx and UPS
continue to dazzle customers
that includes complete customization by
module. But as suppliers gain power, as did
Intel and Microsoft in the computer indus­try,
the leap to customizing across plat­forms
could become a reality. If this
happens, we will see an ebusiness struc­tural
migration of the entire auto industry
as we have seen in the computer industry.
This ebusiness structural migration
means that executives will start with
mass-customization value propositions­provide
what the customer wants at any
location at the lowest possible cost-and
design supply chains to fulfill the value
proposition. Many value-adding activities
such as logistics and component manufac­turing
migrate out of the company and into
the hands of capable suppliers while
retaining only the most fundamental of
core competencies.
Creating Your Future
Consider pausing from your busy sched­ule
to develop a futurist scenario for your
own business. In writing and reviewing
your futurist scenario, ask yourself the fol­lowing
questions:
1. How will customers buy products
and services in my industry? When you
consider new marketing and distribution
channels, don't overlook the transition
from existing ones whether the transition
with abilities to move material, informa­tion
and the coordination across applica­tions-
the 'killer apps' such as ERP and
CRM-become the keys to successful
design and execution of global supply
chains. Additionally, integration across the
supply chain requires collaborative plan­ning,
identification of bottlenecks, estab­lishment
of shared performance metrics,
and serious consideration of shifting
responsibilities to those best equipped to
perform.
Building virtual global supply chains
requires an extension of recently popular­ized
knowledge management to the emerg­ing
field of supply chain management.
Broadly defined, knowledge is information
that can be put to business use. The chal­lenge
of global supply chain management
will be to use knowledge rather than
excess inventory to hedge against market­place
uncertainties and delight customers
with customized and localized bundles of
products and seIVices delivered wherever
and whenever desired. •
Dr. Youngdahl has written a chapter on
global supply chains for The Thunderbird
International Business Review,
published by John Wiley & Sons.
He can be reached at (602) 978-7050 or
youngdb@t-bird.edu.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000 13
14 THUNDERBIRD 53 I 2 I 2000
Tab Tsukuda '95 (EMIM) said that a 5 percent
reduction in material cost can have as much
profit margin impact as a 28 percent sales increase.
ncreasing global competition has
compelled many firms like Bechtel
Corporation to seek out world class
suppliers wherever they might be.
Correspondingly, among large U.S.
manufacturers, an estimated 72 per­cent
now procure goods from sources out­side
the United States.
Simple Fact: When the goal is boosting
profits by dramatically lowering costs, a
business shouldfirst look to what it buys.
On average, manufacturers sheU out 55
cents for each doUar of revenue on goods
and services, from raw materials to
overnight mail.
Purchasing's New Muscle
Fortune, February 20, 1995
Factor input strategies encourage finns
to seek suppliers who can provide low cost
goods and services or to find companies
with superior technology. Market access
strategies compel finns to seek suppliers
who can facilitate access to local markets.
Both strategies drive finns to seek globally
competitive suppliers. However, the factor
that leads most finns to seek foreign sup­ply
is low price. Management interest in
this objective is simple: lower purchase
costs can generate a marked improvement
in financial performance.
In the following illustration, a 5 percent
reduction in material cost produces a
profit margin improvement of 2.3 percent
(from 8 to 10.3 percent). The same profit
improvement can be achieved by increas­ing
sales 28.8 percent. Many companies
simply find a 5 percent reduction in mater­ial
cost easier and less costly to achieve.
Global sourcing is one tool used to
reduce material cost. However, global
sourcing is more than simply finding low
cost producers. To successfully implement
a global sourcing program, companies
must be able to manage the increased
complexity associated with cross-border
trade. Two examples of business areas
requiring attention are (a) foreign
exchange risk and (b) import taxes.
Foreign Exchange Risk
Many buyers assume that by denominat­ing
purchases in their home currency (e.g.,
U.S. Dollars (USD)), they have eliminated
foreign exchange risk. What these buyers
ignore is the 'cost' of transferring the
transaction exposure to the supplier as
well as the cost savings opportunities that
might be available.
For example, a U.S. engineering and
construction company is purchasing a
power plant boiler from a manufacturer in
Monterrey, Mexico. Who bears the transac-
tion exposure depends upon the currency
selected to denominate the purchase. The
boiler manufacturer would bear the trans­action
risk when the order is denominated
in U.S. dollars. The risk borne by this man­ufacturer
is that they will receive less, in
Mexican Pesos, than originally anticipated
at the time of the quotation.
This exchange rate risk can be divided
into three phases:
Quotation Exposure. Although our boiler
manufacturer may hedge the price quoted
(e.g., obtain a forward contract) , it is
unlikely that the company will entertain
this option unless it perceives a very high
probability that it will receive the order. It
is more likely that the manufacturer will
increase its price to cover the associated
transaction exposure.
Backlog Exposure. The actual order marks
the incidence of the transaction exposure.
The manufacturer might hedge its
expected payments at this time but unfor­tunately,
this likely provides the buyer no
pricing relief.
Billing Exposure. The period of time
between shipmentibilling and actual pay­ment
introduces exchange rate risk-par­ticularly
if the buyer imposes extended
payment terms.
To continue our example, assume that
delivery and payment will be made one
year after order placement. The Mexican
manufacturer prices this order at
US$2,000,000 or 17,500,000 Mexican Pesos
(MXP). With the spot exchange rate at 9.2
MXPIUSD, some U.S. buyers might denom­inate
the order in U.S. Dollars assuming
FORWARD RATES
The exchange rate in a forward contract
(forward rate) is a function of the spot
exchange rate and the interest rate differen­tial
between the two currencies.
In the case of the Mexican Peso and u.s.
Dollar, interest rates in Mexico are higher
than in the u.s. (by approximately 20 per­cent
on an annual basis) and therefore the
Mexican Peso trades at a discount in the for­ward
market. That is, you receive 20 percent
more Mexican Pesos per U.S. Dollar on a 12
month forward than at spot exchange rates.
FORWARD CONTRACT
A forward contract is an agreement where a
bank agrees to 'sell' a set amount of a for­eign
currency (e.g., Mexican Pesos) for a
fixed sum (e.g. u.s. Dollars) on an agreed
upon date in the future (or during an
agreed upon period). No money changes
hands until the date set out in the contract.
Forward contracts are the most commonly
used financial instrument for hedging
foreign exchange risk.
that the foreign exchange rate risk has
been eliminated at little cost to their com­pany.
However, our buyer recognizes that
the boiler can be obtained for significantly
less by denominating the order in Mexican
Pesos-about $1,600,000 (USD) or
$400,000 (USD) less than indicated by the
spot exchange rate. The buyer's analysis
appropriately considered the 12-month for­ward
exchange rate, not the spot exchange
I
J
f
J
rate. Our buyer was able to take advantage
of the supplier's lower price (because the
supplier was not forced to increase its
price for assuming the exchange rate risk)
and utilize an international financial instru­ment
to his company's advantage.
Import Taxes
Another aspect of global sourcing
involves the assessment of customs duties
on imported goods. For example, if we
return to our U.S. engineering and con­struction
company, assume that our buyer
is responsible for the importation of a
Japanese steam turbine generator (STG)
to be used in the new power plant. The
components comprising the STG are a
steam turbine, generator and digital con­trol
unit. Each is completed at a different
time. Some buyers will ship the compo­nents
as they are completed in an effort to
minimize storage costs at the supplier's
site. Unfortunately, this "cost saving" tac­tic
actually increases costs.
For customs duty purposes, the genera­tor
is classified as other than a generating
set (HTSUS 8501.64.00) and is assessed a
customs duty rate of 2.9 percent. The
steam turbine is classified as turbojets, tur­bopropellers
and other gas turbines
(HTSUS 8411.82.80) and carries a duty rate
of 5 percent. If we combine these compo­nents
into a single shipment (albeit in sep­arate
crates), all of the components are
classified as a generating set (HTSUS
8502.30.00) and carry a customs duty rate
of 2.9 percent. Our buyer is thereby able to
shave 2.1 percent (5 - 2.9 percent) off the
tariff applied to the steam turbine and sim­ilarly
save on the digital control unit as
well. Additional savings are also available
by combining the cargo on a single ship
and thereby negotiating a better rate on
the larger shipment. This opportunity is
PROFIT MARGIN IMPACT MODEL
Retumon
Investment
10%
(11K)
not confined to high cost capital goods-it
is easily repeated with low cost consumer
goods shipped in volume.
Summary
Companies that continue to view pur­chasing
as an administrative function (Le.,
just people who issue paper to buy some­thing)
will face increasing cost competition
from firms that are able to effectively utilize
global sourcing. Leading firms recognize
purchasing as a value-added activity.
Globally competitive companies will be
increasingly staffed by purchasing profes­sionals
who are able to effectively transact
business across borders. This article
addressed only two of the tactical issues
normally encountered in international
trade: foreign exchange and import taxes.
However, it should be clear that the effec­tive
management of just these two aspects
of a cross-border transaction can have a
significant impact on the cost competitive­ness
of a firm. Those firms able to manage
the added complexities of cross-border
trade can realize significant competitive
advantages over less adept domestic com­petitors.
Leading companies recognize
that global sourcing is not just about buy­ing
something overseas-it is about
achieving competitive advantage in
increasingly global markets. •
Tab Tsukuda may be reached at
tttsukud@bechtel.com
THUNDERBIRD 53 /21 2000 15
LUMNIISERVICES
SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT BECOMES AN ART
When you spend billions of dol­lars
a year on materials, cost
cutting can make or break
your company. Thus, effective
global supply chain management has
become one of the Holiest of Grails in
industry. And yes, the Internet has opened
up brave new worlds of opportunity­where
buyers and sellers can quickly meet.
But in the end, good global sourcing strate­by
Lindsey Michaels
In the end, Jones said, "Companies can
always get their systems to 'play' once they
get their people on the same page with
goals and strategies." In fact, he added,
having multinational sourcing and manu­facturing
options, as well as culturally sen­sitive
buyers in many lands, can be a plus.
"For instance, today's fighter aircraft are
moving toward liquid crystal and flat panel
displays," he said. "They're better and eas­gists
and strategies control
corporate destiny. That's Thunderbird offers formal Corporate
ier to read. But Japan is
the leader in that tech­nology
and its govern­ment,
by constitution,
doesn't allow technol­ogy
transfer for
weapons. That's when
multinational creative
solutions come in to
play. Then, there are
countries like Turkey
that have offset require­ments,
which mandate
one reason supply chain
people are in demand and
why companies like
Consulting or Corporate Partnership
programs to address nearly every
global business need. Length, depth,
Honeywell and Ford are and cost are tailored to client need.
partnering with Thunder- The School also offers InterAd, where
bird to have studentJfac- tailored teams do in-depth marketing
ulty teams conduct key and product launch analysis, and ForAd,
research. which gives top finance students
"Honeywell Internation-real-
world issues to strategize. For more al, which includes the old
Honeywell and Allied­Signal
companies, will
spend US$5.5 billion on
production materials this
year," said Rich Jones '93
information, contact Thunderbird's
Office of Corporate and Foundation
Relations at cfr@t·bird.edu
or (602) 978·7641.
(EMIM) vice president of supply manage­ment
for Honeywell's Space and Aviation
Control unit. "In our old company, we used
to spend 35 to 40 percent outside the U.S.
That will be higher now, with more of our
materials coming from Europe and Asia."
Jones said that today's supply chain
issues are more complex. They don't just
involve finding quality, low cost materials.
They involve predicting demand, designing
to key supply specs, keeping material
costs off the books, and expediting manu­facturing
and delivery. That's why most
companies are moving toward strong,
long-term supplier partnerships where
buyer and sellers integrate systems, share
detailed forecast and cost data, and even
design products jointly.
"Mergers, like our recent one, make sup­ply
chain issues even more complex
because information systems, supplier rela­tionships,
and buying philosophies aren't
always compatible," Jones said. "Here in
the U.S., for instance, we tend to build long­term
alliances that have more to do with
strategic relationships than up-front price.
In China, however, the word 'alliances' can
be misinterpreted. Chinese buyers tend to
view anything that's not pushing a lower
price as 'fat,' and they're suspicious. "
16 THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
ence our
through to
Dr. Bill
Corporate P
that assesses
strategies for
with Ford for
mic and real-WOfll(l-:
widely by culture, so
approaches must be expfameqj
and standardized, Jones Said.
year Youngdahl's students are looking at
best practice sourcing strategies for a spe­cific
automobile system.
"What makes this program work is the
fact that Ford makes real-time company
data available to me and our student
teams," he said. "Team members also have
access to Ford executives and key suppli­ers."
Thus, the team does both primary
and secondary research. It also brings a
fresh perspective.
"Sometimes, our corporate partners
have us do their initial research. At other
times, I think they're partnering with us to
get a second opinion," Youngdahl said.
"Remember, with global sourcing, there's
up to 75 percent of material costs at stake
so good research and having an added
degree of certainty are paramount."
Youngdahl added that students apply for
each project, they often bring different cul­ture
and job backgrounds, and they are,
ultimately, selected for program participa-by
Ford
~ Yourlgd:ahl, Ford
Korean Executives from the SK Group balance the weight of the world, both literally and figuratively, as they strengthen their position in the new
I by Lindsey Micfw,els
n one room, executives from South
Korea's SK Group study global manage­ment.
In another, Thunderbird Internation­al
Consortium (TIC) members manage a
merger/acquisition class. Nearby rooms
hold people pursuing five different pro­grams:
a weeklong leadership course, a
custom Pharmacia & Upjohn class, a local
certificate program, a first-ever alumni
course, and an English as a second lan­guage
class. Meanwhile, in France, a 8T
Microelectronics group works through a
five-day class-while in Brazil, tradesmen
tackle a two-day telecommunications
workshop.
And you thought Thunderbird's Execu­tive
Education group just taught the EMIM
program!
Say "Exec Ed" to Thunderbirds, and
most think solely of the School's weekend
degree program. Few people realize that
Exec Ed now offers a full range of highly
ranked continuing education programs for
Thunderbird alunmi and non-T-birds. And
more are on the way.
So, if you still think Exec Ed only runs
the degree program, you might be sur­prised
to learn that Thunderbird's Execu­tive
Education programs are ranked in the
world economy. Here, Chung Jae Ho gives the world a spin.
top three worldwide by Busi ness Week
magazine and that all of the following pro­grams
took place during one very typical
week at Thunderbird.
South Korean Group Has Three-Month Stay
Twenty-three members of South Korea's
SK Group near the end of three intensive
months at Thunderbird. They've practiced
English, experienced American culture,
and learned key global business skills.
Today they're working on final company­specific
presentations using what they've
learned.
The SK Group, which is South Korea's
fourth largest conglomerate, or 'chaebol,'
has sent 20 or more students per year
through this program for eight of the last
nine years.
"Here at Thunderbird, I've felt the reality
of globalization," said Park Bok Soo, then a
senior manager at SK. "Students come here
from various countries, and study hard.
They will be my-or my son's-competi­tors.
Most Koreans, including me, need to
face and prepare for that reality."
The SK program begins with three
weeks of intensive English classes. During
the remaining nine weeks, the participants,
who are all from South Korea, meet from 8
a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday,
as well as for a half-day every other week­end.
They spend 90 minutes each day in
English class, and the rest addressing eight
global issues that SK's management deems
most significant: including global strategy
and advanced finance. While at Thunder­bird,
group members also visit national
parks, local attractions, and faculty mem­bers'
homes. Each student also works with
a dedicated tutor for five hours per week.
"The tutors are actually one of the most
popular parts of the program," said Debisu
Boston, the senior program coordinator in
Exec Ed's Thunderbird Language and
Culture Center. "They serve as conversa­tion
partners, involve their students in cam­pus
activities, and take them off-campus to
experience American culture first-hand."
The custom-designed SK ManagemenU
English program is one of several pro­grams
Exec Ed has designed for compa­nies
that want help addressing unique
global training needs. The program ends
with each student team focusing on one of
several issues that SK deems critical.
Approximately 12 other SK Group mem­bers
per year also participate in a Thun-
THUNDERBIRD 53 12 I 2000 17
derbird International Consortium II (TIC
II) program, which meets three times a
year for two weeks per time.
Leading Companies Partner in Consortia
Back in the early 1990s, Thunderbird
began forming strategic partnerships with
leading global firms that wanted to
actively develop their global management.
By 1992, those informal partnerships had
evolved into a formal Thunderbird Inter­national
Consortia (TIC) program. Thun­derbird
currently runs two separate TIC
groups. A third is being formed.
"Thunderbird partners with non-compet­ing
companies with similar global manage­ment
training needs and objectives," said
Don Trotter, an associate vice president in
Exec Ed. "Each consortium is run by its
own advisory board comprised of com­pany
and Thunderbird representatives,
with each board actively influencing what
course content its members receive." That
content can range from 'big picture' to
function-specific initiatives-everything
from global human resources and staff
development, to global marketing, regional
analysis, strategic alliances, and corporate
finance.
According to Trotter, all partner compa­nies
send different participants to different
programs to take maximum advantage of
each module's content. Some, like the SK
Group, also send their non-native English
speaking employees through a weekiong,
pre-module English refresher course.
"We also offer what we call a TIC-Plus
course," he said. "Basically, it's a special
three-day, topical program that helps con­sortia
members address a specific need."
The current TIC-Plus program targets
merger and acquisition needs.
"I came here to evaluate how the TIC
format could help us address our training
needs," said David Thornewill von
Essen, a '98 EMIM graduate and British
national. "I work for ON Semiconductor,
which recently spun off from Motorola.
We're a $1.7 billion company with 10,500
employees and we're looking to use this
great resource called Thunderbird to cre­ate
a cost-effective 'virtual' MU [Motorola
University).
"In my EMIM classes here, we covered
topics broadly. In this mergers and acquisi­tions
program, we discussed very applied
issues. We also had people in class from
AlliedSignal and Kellogg who were actu­ally
doing a merger/acquisition now. You
don't get more applied than that."
As a result of his experience, Thornewill
1B THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
von Essen has enrolled ON Semiconductor
in TIC III, which begins in June. TIC III par­ticipants
may also include companies like
Toyota and Prudential. TIC I and II partici­pants
include AlliedSignal Inc., AT&T, BP
Amoco, Delphi Automotive Systems, The
Dow Chemical Company, Dow Agro­Sciences,
EDS, General Motors, The
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Kimberly­Clark
Corporation, Lucent Technologies,
and Warner-Lambert Company.
Executive Education Goes Global
While many of Exec Ed's clients come
to Glendale, not all do. In fact, Thunder­bird
is taking more and more lifelong
learning courses on the road. Some are
company specific. Some focus on certain
jobs. Others are geared toward specific
industries. During the week that Thunder­bird
magazine crashed Exec Ed's Glendale
programs, the School was also hosting two
very different programs in Marseille,
France, and Siio Paulo, Brazil.
"We conduct about 17 courses a year for
a French company called ST Micro­electronics,"
said Charles Gibson, an Exec
Ed director. "ST is already the world's
ninth largest semi-conductor manufac­turer
and is aiming for number five. So at
their request, we've tailored a full range of
programs specifically to them." Those
courses are also delivered right at ST's
French facility.
"Education is a strategic issue for ST
Microelectronics," said Jean-Claude Nataf,
STU and corporate training director. He
added that ST became impressed with the
"competencies and international experi­ence"
of Exec Ed's professors back in 1995,
as well as with the School's willingness to
"work with us as a team to adapt to
changes in the market. That's why
we established a long-term partner­ship
with Thunderbird's Executive
Education for our management
development programs in the fields
of strategy, finance and marketing."
The module running at ST during
this particular week is Advanced
Management Program: Finance/
Marketing, which offers two and
one-half days of training each in
finance and marketing. Thunder­bird's
Drs. Jim Mills and Chris
Miller typically teach that program
in France four times per year, using
cases that are specific to ST. Exec
Ed also provides case-specific
Advanced Management Program:
Strategy, and Fundamentals of
Management/Finance training to
ST several times each year.
During this week, Exec Ed is
also spearheading a two-day
telecommunications workshop in
Brazil where the industry has just
been privatized. This workshop
marks the first time Thunderbird
has run a telecom- munications
program in South America and so
Exec Ed has partnered with TDC
Integris, an education and training
company. Sixty people attend, listening to
simultaneous translations in English and
Portuguese.
"The Brazilian market is very hungry for
global telecommunications management
programs like this one," said Dr. Ram
Sundaresan, who runs this program.
"They're also interested in two-way inter­active
teaching styles, where the audience
participates. "
Meanwhile, Back at Thunderbird . ..
Pharmacia & Upjohn (P&D) managers
are participating in a one-week Managing
for Growth session. Program participants
are chosen by P&U senior management
based on their level of experience and
potential for growth within the company.
They come from nearly every continent
and a number of job types. Most have
never met before.
P&U approached Thunderbird several
years ago and asked for help designing
programs that would meet employees' life­long
learning goals. Thus, this custom pro­gram
(which is delivered in two, one-week
blocks) was bom.
"Thunderbird faculty and staff show a
real ability to understand our needs," said
Larry Fagenhaug, director of organiza­tional
and management development at
P&u. "Their interest in looking at issues
from our standpoint and designing the cur­riculum
accordingly has helped our rela­tionship
evolve into a true partnership. We
are continually redesigning the pro­gram
to align with our strategic
direction. "
companies and more than 10 countries
are taking Exec Ed's relatively new
Leading the Global Organization course.
This one-week program is geared toward
developing global leadership skills.
Participants study global team building,
organizational development, rewards and
recognition systems, partner manage­ment,
and negotiation styles. They even
conduct a sometimes-frustrating mock
negotiation during which groups are
secretly assigned opposing negotiation
styles and strategies.
"Academic Director John Seybolt has
done a phenomenal job developing a close
bond among participants in this program,
an amazing feat given the multicultural mix
One of the most exciting things
Exec Ed did for P&U involved
designing an industry-specific four­day
computer simulation that repli­cates
the actual set of charac­teristics,
conditions, and forces
P&U faces. "It is by far the most
realistic simulation I have partici­pated
in," said Ron Cheeley, vice
president, Global Compensation
and Benefits. "I am relatively new to
the industry, so the simulation
helped me gain a better understand­ing
of the product life cycle. It will
allow me to create innovative
reward programs that link perfor­mance
with business results. "
offIrIngs In exceIle"u:oIpcIndl111'11n­ing
att.mative. Exec Ed attracts global
professionals from nearly every field.
In a nearby classroom, 28 Thun­derbird
alumni are huddled in the
flrst-ever pre-Homecoming Global
Issues '99 program. This specially­designed
three-day course has attracted T­bird
graduates spanning four different
decades who now work in more than 12
countries. That includes two sets of mar­ried
T-bird couples and two others who
have already returned to campus to
address other lifelong learning needs.
"This program has been far, far better
than even what I had expected," said Yuji
Furukawa '80 of Japan. "As Thunder­birds,
we could all start the course with a
common perspective, but the discussions
have been so much more in-depth and pro­active
than they were the flrst time we
were students here because of the degree
of current, on-the-job experience each of
us comes with," he said. "These people are
all very aware of what the real issues and
opportunities are in their countries."
In another room, executives from 18
of the group," said Jan Mueller, an Exec Ed
director. Seybolt and Mueller further
deepen that intercultural experience by
inviting a group of current students from
Latin America to dine with the group.
"I actually took this same negotiation
course from Professor Walsh six years ago
and it is entirely different today," said
Juan Gallego '93, a Spanish national who
now works for Nokia in Texas. "Even
though we're T-birds, we need to recognize
that the world is changing and we need to
update our skills constantly .... being here
For more information about Thunderbird's
Executive Education offerings, contact:
• Senior Vice President Bud Robyn at
Robynb@t-bird.edu or (602) 978-7628
• Vice President Frank Lloyd at
lIoydf@t-bird.edu or (602) 978-7923.
with colleagues from all around the globe
has helped me get current on world issues.
I've been focused almost exclusively on
Latin America"
A Program For Every Need
Responding to the needs of Phoenix's
"local" business crowd, Thunderbird
developed a Global Leadership Certificate
Program several years ago. This 13-week
course meets one evening per week and
covers 14 key global executive topics. This
week is roughly the program midpoint for
the 25 executives who commute to Glen­dale
on Monday nights. A second group of
50 is taking the same program across town
in Tempe on Tuesday nights.
Back in the Thunderbird
Language and Culture Cen­ter,
where South Korea's SK
Group also meets, a different
group of 24 foreign nationals
is taking the School's ten­week
Pre MBA Intensive
English Program. This pro­gram
is uniquely designed
for non-native English
speakers who plan to enter
Thunderbird-or other grad­uate
business schools. The
program is offered three
times per year and almost
inevitably "converts" some
students who had planned
on moving on to other
schools.
Although Exec Ed is
almost certainly running its
better known EMIM pro­gram
this week, it may well
also be running several of its
other industry- and job-specific programs
too. Unfortunately, at this point, we at the
magazine are simply too tired to go check!
That Lifelong Learning Edge
If you're starting to understand that
Exec Ed has evolved into quite a busy
place, you're right. Given the pace of global
change, T-birds and non-T-birds alike are
realizing that they need continuous train­ing
to remain competitive. Thunderbird
officials know that, too. That's why the
School's Exec Ed group now offers a wide
range of short-term programs that fulflll
specific needs. It also designs custom pro­grams
for individual companies, and mar­kets
its Case Series study plans. Word has
it that Internet- and distance-learning mod­ules
are also in development, as is an
expanded line of offshore offerings. •
THUNDERBIRD 53 /2 / 2000 19
20
ETTEH FHOM ELSEWHERE
isitors sometimes think that Hong Kong people are rude,
not realizing that pushing, shoving and elbowing are just a tradi­tional
greeting. It's hard to be enthusiastic about a place where
sometimes you can't walk down the street without collecting a
dozen bruises. But where else can you walk a few steps from
futuristic skyscrapers and find little shops where ancient,
strange smelling, sun-dried fish are sold by ancient, strange
smelling, sun dried fishmongers?
Hong Kong is unlike any other city I've been to in Asia It is a
culturally rich, dynamic and vibrant city with 6.5 million people,
all of whom have an incredible work ethic and a vora­cious
approach to doing business. Money is the driver
of practically all daily activity.
The economic crisis is short-term in nature. We have seen a
decrease in property values. Companies are down-sizing and
restructuring, which has led to layoffs and unemployment rates
that have reached historic levels. There has also been a big drop
in retail trade and tourism.
Because so many of the economic problems are regional in
nature, they remain largely out of Hong Kong's control.
However, it is generally felt that to put Hong Kong back on the
road to prosperity it must widen its economic base and promote
a wider application of innovation and technology to add value to
its products and services. It is now generally realized
that economic growth cannot come from an excessive
reliance on asset inflation as it has in the past
Beyond the more immediate economic problems,
there is a longer-term question about how Hong Kong
should define itself. Hong Kong is not British, and it is
not Chinese. It lacks a national identity. It needs to
determine how it should be governed and what its
basic policies should be. These involve, among other
things, how to maintain and improve the environment
and the legal system, and how to create new jobs and
The first question that people usually ask me when
they find out that I live in Hong Kong is "what has hap­pened
since the handover?" I can honestly say, not
much. The Red Army has not marched in and Hong
Kong has been left to manage its own affairs .. .for bet­ter
or for worse. Although the British are gone, the
Chinese bureaucrats have not moved in or begun issu­ing
orders. This has brought a sense of relief, but it
has also created a nagging anxiety. The auton­After
years of living and working for
maintain a positive business climate.
omy is welcomed, but with that autonomy has
come increasingly complex issues and Bank of America in Hong Kong, Meredith
responsibilities that need to be addressed. Peabody '96 (EMIM) gave a first-person
The concerns start with the issue of funda­mental
identity. Now a part of China, yet sepa­rate
from it, Hong Kong's 'One Country, Two
Systems' motto does not necessarily give use­ful
guidance about how closely Hong Kong
should integrate into mainland China or to
The challenges that Hong Kong faces come perspective of the city's people, poten-in
two broad categories. One is economic and tial and problems before heading off to
the other is in defining its identity. a new assignment in Singapore.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
what extent it should seek an independent international identity.
Hong Kong has become wealthy providing China with a source
of capital, services and technology.
But to remain useful, Hong Kong will need to stay on the lead­ing
edge of China's economic growth. Hong Kong's special privi­leges
might be in jeopardy if it becomes just another Chinese
city. Another critical issue to Hong Kong's future is whether or
not China is accepted into the World Trade Organization. If it is,
Hong Kong's value as a port of entry will be diminished.
Another issue impacting Hong Kong's future is the environ­ment.
A two-year study by the University of Hong Kong pre­dicted
that the city would be 'unlivable' in 15 years unless
something is done about the pollution.
One of the obstacles to attracting overseas financial and tech­nical
specialists is pollution and how it affects the quality of life.
More needs to be done to clean up the air and water and improve
recreational facilities; tougher limits on diesel fuel also would
help. Much of the pollution drifts in from the mainland and
reducing that would require greater cross-border cooperation.
Defining the 'Basic Law' is the challenge facing Hong Kong's
legal system. The Basic Law is, in essence, the post handover
constitution. There is no precedence of how 'One Country, Two
Systems' should operate. It raises questions about limits of
autonomy and the extent to which the Basic Law protects
human rights. How the Basic Law is interpreted and by whom
remains questionable.
Preserving the Rule of Law is also very important to Hong
Kong's future. The Rule of Law brings stability to people's lives
and protects them from unfair treatment. It ensures that busi­ness
can be conducted with confidence and it attracts invest­ment.
Concern arises over the stark differences between the
two legal systems. The Rule of Law has never existed in China
and 40 years of communism has left a legacy of social domina­tion
by party and state.
On the political front, there are still unresolved questions over
how far and how fast the country should extend the democratic
voting process. Today government officials have set a confus­ingly,
tangled, three-tiered voting system to elect their Legislative
Council. The general population directly elects only one-third of
the seats. The other 40 seats are assigned by a select group of
representatives from professional and trade organizations.
Many business leaders believe the politicians, especially the
Democratic Party, are proving too fractious, endangering both
relations with China and the business environment and, thus,
their profits.
However Hong Kong is managed, there is no doubt that it
faces new competition as an international business center.
There is a perception among the international business commu­nity
that Hong Kong has been politicized. For example, the
emergency program last year to stabilize property prices was
seen as government trYing to protect property developers. This
showed a vulnerability to pressure from vested interest groups.
Market intervention during the early part of the recession has
thrown into doubt the government's commitment to maintaining
a laissez-faire system causing some critics to speculate that
Hong Kong's role as a regional trading and financial center could
be in jeopardy. It was also seen as China's intention to buy its
way into Hong Kong busi-nesses.
One of the biggest chal­lenges
to Hong Kong is the
high cost of doing business.
Hong Kong is ranked the third
most expensive city in the
world in which to conduct
business, and the most expen­sive
city in which to live. One
key cost issue involves the
government land policy. Many
overseas businesses consider
One of the obstacles
to attracting
overseas financial
and technical
specialists is
pollution and
how it affects the
quality of life.
the high property prices a kind of hidden tax, which offsets
other advantages. Property prices need to drop further to help
the city meet global competition.
In his recent policy address, Chief Executive Thng Chee-hwa
outlined his plans for creating a more vibrant economy for Hong
Kong. The initiatives that he outlined dealt with all the critical
issues surrounding improving the educational system, the envi­ronment,
housing, the legal and political systems, and job cre­ation.
Execution of these initiatives is going to be a key
determinant of Hong Kong's ability to regain its position in the
international community.
One of the characteristics that I admire most about the peo­ple
of Hong Kong is their resilience. They have an uncanny abil­ity
to focus on what needs to be done, working hard and
sacrificing personally to achieve the desired results. I have no
doubt that Hong Kong will be able to reinvent itself and return
even stronger than it was before. •
Meredith Peabody may be reached at meredith@dbs.com.sg
THUNDERBIRD 53 /2/ 2000 21
22
Anwar Sadat. Jimmy carter. and Menachem Begin celebrate during the historic 1979 peace treaty signing ceremony in
Washington. D.C. That joy turned to horror in 1981 when Sadat was assassinated by those who opposed his views on peace.
Messenger of Peace
Former Egyptian First Lady continues her late husband's quest
by Lindsey Michaels
Her biography described her as dignified, courageous, and The First Lady of the World. Yet, it didn't
even begin to capture the true essence of Jehan Sadat. Sad at, the widow of slain Egyptian
President Anwar Sadat, was warm, gracious, and uncommonly genuine during an extended pre­Ramadan
visit to Thunderbird.
Sadat addressed an overflow crowd of obvi­ously
awed students, staff, and faculty at
Thunderbird. The group rose and greeted her
with a rousing ovation when she entered the
room then stood twice more as she spoke. And,
although some listeners may not have agreed
with all of Sadat's views, most seemed incredibly
impressed with the lady herself. They were also
impressed that Sadat took the time to meet pri­vately
with two separate student/faculty
groups--where she walked around, asked each
Faces alight and audience members rush to stand as
they begin to realize that Sadat has arrived.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
about him- or herself, and shook each person's hand. She had met with the School's Thunderbird
International Symposium group earlier that day.
"My husband was killed because of peace," Sadat told the group. "Yet, 1 support the quest for peace in the
Middle East with all my heart." In a style that one listener described as 'candor and commitment cloaked in
incredible warmth and diplomacy,' Sadat defined peace as an
absolute necessity. ''My husband was killed because of
peace, yet, I support the quest for
peace in the Middle East with all my
heart .. .. Jj we are frightened of being
"I believe people must come face to face, as people, to talk,"
she said. "They must be brave. They must be committed to doing
the right thing in order for peace to be brought about," she
added. "If we are frightened of being killed for promoting peace,
we will never accomplish anything."
An outspoken advocate for justice and social change long killed for promoting peace, we will
before her husband's presidency, Sadat holds a Ph.D. from Cairo never accomplish anything. ))
University and was teaching there when her husband was killed.
She has worked extensively with wounded veterans, and has personally founded hospitals, blood banks, and
orphanages. She has also spearheaded education, social, and legal reforms for women as well as men. Sadat
now teaches at the University of Maryland and travels worldwide promoting peace.
Sadat seemed visibly moved and somewhat humbled by the School's depth and breadth of student diver­sity
and strong sense of community.
"I can't tell you how happy 1 am to see you, a Syrian, sitting next to you, a Lebanese, sitting next to you, an
Israeli, sitting next to you, a Saudi," Sadat told students during one of her meetings. "You and we are all here
as a family. That is what we need to have world peace and you are doing it so naturally!"
Thunderbird's students and staff seemed equally impressed with her.
"Mrs. Sadat is a very humble, very sincere woman," said Naji El-Khalil, a student from Lebanon. "I think
her message is very important in this day and age when so much is happening." El-Khalil asked Sadat how
Arabs could ever present a united front and speak with a common voice on major issues when they were
still arguing amongst themselves over borders and oil. "She seemed sort of ashamed and sad that that was
true, " he said.
"Madame Sadat is an intriguing woman," added Nimrod Posner, an Israeli. "What she has been through
and what she has become-an Ambassador of Peace-influences every person that has the pleasure of
meeting her. 1 think Thunderbird students were honored that a person of that magnitude came here and
talked to us." At the post speech session, Posner and Sadat shared their somewhat different views about the
status of Jerusalem. Sadat greets Iraqi stu-
Haithan AI-Sayed, an Iraqi student, asked 8adat when she thought the world would dent Haithan AI-Sayed
stop fearing Arabs and expressed a personal sense of hurt about how people react to who had expressed hurt
him when they learn his nationality. "If we take the hatred from our hearts, we will all over how some people
be better in the future," she responded. AI-Sayed termed Sadat's visit an excellent react to his nationality.
opportunity to "hear and view the real issues governing the
Peace negotiations of the Middle East from a 'hands on' per­spective.
In addition, 1 got a strong sense of a motherly feel­ing
as Madame Sadat was giving her talk, " he said.
A mother of four, and grandmother of 11, Sadat clearly
adores her family. She spoke lovingly of her three daugh­ters,
and one son, even sharing a personal letter at one ses­sion
that was written by her 12-year-old granddaughter. She
ended both presentations with a moving love poem which
she had written for her late husband when they were young,
and beamed when announcing that her husband's long­awaited
namesake, Anwar Sadat II, was born on the Fourth
of July last year.
"I came to the U.S. after my husband was killed because
1 wanted to talk about peace," she said. "That means that 1
had to leave my children and my grandchildren, whom 1
miss terribly. But 1 will keep encouraging people to talk, as
people, about peace-to be brave about their stands on
peace because down here, in my heart, 1 really do believe
that 1 will see peace in my lifetime. " •
THUNDERBIRD 53 I 2 I 2000 23
24
WWW.T-BIHD.EDU
• New Century Brings • Students Host
New T-bird Curriculum Ebusiness Conference
Based on feedback from "You're not in business unless
employers, alumni, current stu­dents
and faculty, the MIM curricu­lum
is being reinvented to meet the
demands of the rapidly changing
global business world our gradu­ates
face. Beginning this fall, Thun­derbird
will begin phasing in major
curriculum reforms designed to
help ensure that T-birds are pre­pared
to face the enormous global
challenges of the new millennium.
After meeting a set of prerequi­sites
for the MIM, T-birds will begin
the program with a two-week
Foundations for Global Leadership
course. A two-trimester 'flexi-core'
of common courses will follow, to
ensure that all T-birds have a
shared set of core global business
skills when they graduate.
Students lacking foreign language
proficiency will have a more
extended flexi-core to help develop
those skills-leading to a 60 credit
program, compared with a 45 to 50
credit program for those already
proficient in their chosen foreign
language(s).
Under the plan, which was
approved by Thunderbird's faculty,
students will proceed from Founda­tions
through the flexi-core in
diverse student cohort groups of
approximately 50 individuals to
help build a strong sense of the
Thunderbird community among
the students as well as to facilitate
learning. After the flexi-core, stu­dents
will begin specializations to
build more depth in their chosen
areas. They will also be encour­aged
to take one-to-two trimester
internships after their fie xi-core
experiences and will spend their
final trimesters with specialization
and capstone experiences, design­ed
to synthesize and build on the
rest of their programs. Interims
and Wmterims will be optional, but
encouraged, experiences to both
broaden and deepen the knowl­edge
of MIM students.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
you're in ebusiness" was the pri­mary
theme of the entrepreneur­ship,
Venture Capital, eBusiness
(eVe) conference, held on campus
in October 1999. Representatives
from PeopleSoft, QuePasa!.com,
Visitalk.com, and Hurwitz Group,
as well as two venture capitalists,
spoke about the trends in the global
and electronic business fields dur­ing
a seven-hour conference orga­nized
by student volunteers.
A second conference was held
February 4, 2000, at Thunderbird
and attracted heavy student,
alumni, and community interest.
The concept for eVe was initially
focused on entrepreneurship, but
as forum planning progressed, the
emphasis shifted. "The lines
between ebusiness, venture capital
and entrepreneurship are blur­ring,"
said co-organizer Walter
Joyce '00. Therefore, conference
presenters gave a broad overview
of the trends in bUSiness, as well as
the challenges that come with
starting up an ebusiness company.
Thunderbird's Dr. Paul Johnson,
distinguished professor of global
entrepreneurship, said the School
now offers 10.5 credit hours of
entrepreneurship classes--enough
for an official entrepreneurship
major. The School also is working
to create a Thunderbird Venture
Capital Fund,
through which
Kay Keckwill
oversee all Career
Management
Center activities
at Thunderbird.
students could gain funding for Michael
exceptional business plans. The O'Donnell, (right)
School also offers a course in elec- president of
tronic commerce, as well as a Visitalk.com was
Thunderbird Student Government-backed
initiative called eBird. a key speaker at
Ebird's goal is to build students' both eVe
technical and international busi- Forums.
ness skills proportionally. The pro­gram
harnesses the expertise of
students from hi-tech backgrounds
and employees of the School's
Information and Instructional
Technology department to deliver
free courses in HTML program­ming
and network design. Thun­derbid
is also adding more
ebusiness courses to its new cur­riculum.
• Career Management
Center Names New
Vice President
Thunderbird has named Kay
Keck vice president for profes­sional
and career develop-ment.
Keck will run the
School's Career Manage­ment
Center, as well as
lead other Thunderbird
student advising activities.
She also is charged with
piloting a new initia­tive
that will help
students assess
and refine critical
leadership skills.
Keckjoins Thun­derbird
from the
University of Geor­gia's
Terry School
of Business, where
Visitalk.com,
which allows
people around
the world to
share voice,
video, and infor­mation
via the
Internet, also
was a sponsor of
the February
forum. Its sys­tems
let people
make PC to PC
phone calls.
His Excellency,
Dr. Eberhard
Koesch, greets
the Honorable
Bill Behrens at
the Ambas­sadors'
Ball in
Phoenix. Hosted
by the Consular
Corps of Arizona,
the ball raises
money for
Thunderbird. This
year's event hon­ored
Germany
and the 10th
anniversary of
the Berlin Wall's
fall. Koesch is the
acting ambas­sador
of the
Federal Republic
of Germany.
Behrens is an
honorary consul
to Germany.
for the past eight years she has
been the director of graduate pro­grams.
In that position she was
responsible for overseeing all
aspects of the MBA, Ph.D., and
Executive MBA programs.
She holds a Ph.D. in manage­ment
science, spent four years as
an assistant professor of market­ing,
and has eight years of experi­ence
in various sales and training
positions at AT&T.
• Leading Journalists
Visit Th u nderbi rd
Journalists from some of the
world's leading news organizations
have been spending time at Thun­derbird,
thanks to the Council for
Advancement and Support of
Education (CASE) Media Fellow­ships
program. The journalists
were: Sherwood Ross, who covers
workplace issues for Reuters
Business News; Della Bradshaw,
the business education editor at
the Financial Times; and Joshua
Jampol, a freelancer, who writes
for the International Herald Tri­bune
and Time. All attended a vari­ety
of classes and met with faculty,
staff and students.
"This visit con­firms
what I've
always believed,"
said Bradshaw,
"which is that
Thunderbird is the
only truly interna­tional
graduate
business school in
the States."
Each year, CASE
invites media rep­resentatives
to par­ticipate
in a variety
of three- to five-day
fellowships that
allow participants
to interact with
leading scholars,
explore new and
emerging issues,
and learn of cut­ting-
edge ideas at some of the
nation's leading educational insti­tutions.
Thunderbird has partici­pated
in the CASE program for the
past three years by providing fel­lowship
experiences for journalists
from the Wall Street Journal,
Forbes, CNN, The Arizona Repub­lic,
and Washington Technology.
• Three International
Executives Elected to
Board of Trustees
Three leading international
executives have been elected to the
Thunderbird Board of Trustees.
They are: Guillermo Luksic Craig,
Don Budinger, and Samuel S.
Garvin '88.
"We are truly honored to have
these exceptionally talented indi­viduals
join our board," said Roy
Herberger Jr., president of Thun­derbird.
"Their international expe­rience
in different economic
sectors will be greatly beneficial as
we position our School to help the
world face the challenges of global­ization
and economic development
in the next century."
Luksic holds a
key management
position in many
of the Luksic
Group companies
in Chile . Those
companies are
involved in the
food and bever­age,
service, cop­per
and aluminum
products, manu­facturing,
tele­communications,
printing, manage­ment
and financial
consulting, and
banking indus­tries.
Budinger is a founder and inune­diate
past president of Rodel, Inc.,
the world's largest manufacturer of
high precision surface finishing
chemicals for manufacturing com­puter
chips, silicon wafers, and
rigid memory discs. He is also vice
chairman of Rodel, Inc., president
of the Rodel Charitable Foun­dations,
and vice president of
Rodel-Nitta in Osaka, Japan.
Garvin, a T-bird graduate, is
chairman, president and CEO of
Continental Promotion Group
(CPG) in Scottsdale, Arizona. The
US$325 million fulfillment com­pany
handles consumer and trade
promotions throughout the United
States, Canada, and the European
Union and has facilities in Scotts­dale
and Tipperary, Ireland.
• Executive Education
Programs Named to
Business Week Top Five
The October 18, 1999, issue of
Business Week lists the Executive
Education non-degree programs
at Thunderbird as among the top
five in Global Business. According
to Business Week, the top schools
in Global Business executive edu­cation
are, in rank order: INSEAD
[France], Thunderbird, IMD
[Switzerland], Harvard, and
London Business School.
Thunderbird
has long been
considered a
leader in global
management
education. The
school's gradu­ate
business
degree program
has been
ranked No. 1 in
the specialty of
International
Business for
four consecutive years by U.S.
News and World Report.
Thunderbird also ran a full-page
ad in that Business Week, thanks,
in part, to the Executive MIM Oass
of 1999 (EMIM 7) which con­tributed
a portion of the ad cost
as its class gift. The Business Week
survey issue, which features a
review of graduate school execu­tive
education programs, is only
printed every second year so it is
widely read and has a long shelf
life. Its ads enjoy high visibility
wor1dwide.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000 25
• Argentina
Fernando Maurette was the
guest speaker at the October First
Tuesday in Argentina. Maurette,
who is the fonner national deputy
and president of the Foreign
Affairs Commissions of the
Chamber of Deputies, provided the
20 T-birds present an insider's per­spective
on the recent Argentine
election. Sasagu Usui '95 is the
chapter leader.
• San Fransisco
The Golden Gate's twinkling
lights attracted T-birds to San
Francisco for the chapter's first­ever
bay cruise. Guests enjoyed
hors d'oeuvres, wine, beer, song
and several fun-filled contests.
They also received event t-shirts.
• Southern
California
T-birds from Southern California
enjoyed a very memorable evening
aboard the well-known TIKI Boat
in Newport Harbor. Of the 74 cos­tumed
passengers, 39 were T-birds!
All danced the night away while
cruising among perhaps the largest
assortment of yachts on the entire
West Coast.
~Vancouver
alumni pose with
the Thunderbird
banner aboard
the boat of
Skipper John
Avard '65 during
a FirstTuesday
outing. The event
also marked the
30th anniversary
of the first meet­ing
between
Avard and Fred
Koppl '52, who
flew in from
Europe to attend.
26 THUNDERBIRD 53 /2/ 2000
..
BAPTEHS
themeata
Frankfurt First
Tuesday at the
Volkswirt. Chapter
leader Brendan
organized the
event as an ad hoc
fundraiser after
learning that
alumni donation
rates were fac­tored
into major
school ranking
reports.
~ Front Row: Marc
Gallin 'S6 Angela
Cassidy '96; Paul
Gomez '7S; Jeff
Jamison '91. Second
Row: Katherine
Schoettler '9S; Jairo
Gutierrez '91; John
Delap 'S3; Elizabeth
Harder '9S; Srett
Beals '95;Third Row:
Erica Schlomer 'S9;
Dave Daws 'S9;
Yumi Murakami '96;
Ahmed "A.D."
Dawood 'S5; Jack
Pravda 'S5; Richard
Baffour '97; Akemi
Takehana '91; Heidi
Thruau '95; Andy Kelly '95;
Fourth Row: Leah Cadavona
'93; Laura Bowen '9S; Lea
(Santamaria) Spagarino '91;
Tessa Sarrazin.'96; Klara Farkas
'93; Cindy Han; Chris Sedgwick
'S6; Patrick Kiernan '97; Fifth
Row: Jonathan Hoi '96; Xuying
Zhao '9S; David Sugrue '97;
Sharon Machuga '96; Daniel
Cody '93; Kollyn Kanz '93;
Andres Spagarino '93; Not
Visible: Jackie Fimrite '99; Jase
Ramsey '97.
Michelle Perez Kenderish '00
before her wedding in Istanbul,
Turkey. Guests from over 20
nations attended the event,
which was held on the banks of
the Bosphorus at the Ciragan
Palace.
• TAA News
The Thunderbird Alumni
Association (TAA) is now officially
global! During an emotional Home­coming
meeting, TAA members
formally enacted motions that cre­ated
both a Global Board and
North America Regional Council.
Those entities join the Asia Pacific,
Latin America, and EuropelMiddle
EasUAfrica councils, which had
already been established. The
effort capped an active four-year
effort that was spearheaded pri­marily
by alumni Chris Johnson
'86, Annette Cazanave '79 and
Bruce Olson '82, and Thunder­bird's
assistant vice president of
Alumni Relations Joy Lubeck '86.
TAA regional councils help
Thunderbird reconnect with T­birds
globally. All councils are
comprised of in-country represen­tatives
who tell Thunderbird what
local alumni want and need, as
well as how they can support the
School. They also help build
stronger chapters. Two representa­tives
from each regional council
serve on the Global Board, as well.
Thunderbird is actively working
with the TAA to reconnect its
31 ,000 alumni. The Alumni My
Thunderbird intranet is both an
important tool and an impressive
result of that effort.
FROM TOP:
1) Members of the Thunderbird
Alumni Association (TAA) Global
Board, which includes members
from all four regional councils, pose
during Homecoming festivities.
2) Asia Pacific Council members in
Hong Kong.
3) Latin American Council members
in Miami.
4) Europe/Middel East/Africa Council
members in Barcelona.
Plan Now For 25th European Reunion: ., 25-28 at Club Med in
For men infCNiiiiItion oflhur ..... bItch 25th ........... and ........ MIIlS-chIdlAMlllllAfy •• "'''''it
J3eatliee:8fmf!scut' 90inArcbamps at~-6667. or bernegeb@gIobaltbil.deduorMieheDeOlsonat
• Get Connected!
Some 6,000 T-birds have already
signed up and signed on to Alumni
My Thunderbird (AMTB) and
School officials are working to
raise that number to 14,000 by July.
AMTB created an alumni online
community and, thus, an electronic
networking forum that lets alumni
find business partners, post deals,
discuss topics, and do job searches.
Since the system becomes expo­nentially
more beneficial with use,
Thunderbird encourages all alumni
to take advantage of AMTB:
To find the site, go to the School's
main Web page at http://www.t­bird.
edu and click on 'Alumni
Intranet' in the lower left-hand cor­ner-
or go directly to the site at
http://alumni.my.t-bird.edu.
AMTB is password-protected, so
only T-birds can use it. On your first
visit, look for the line "Click here to
register."
The registration page contains
both instructions and a registration
form. Fill out the form and click
"Sign me up!" Thunderbird will
email you your 10 number and ini­tial
password within a few days.
Use your 10 and password to sign
on. You can then search for fellow
T-birds, join discussion groups, per­sonalize
your profile page, and
read about all of the programs and
services Thunderbird offers alumni.
For further assistance, click on the
tutorial icon, which is located in
the lower left-hand corner of the
AMTB start page, or email
Jill Tracy, alumni web specialist, at
AMTB@t-bird.edu.
THUNDERBIRD 53 I 2 I 2000 27
28
Alunmi Flock
Four T AA Global Alumni Award
winners were present to receive
their honors at Homecoming.
Pictured (from left) are Sea
Haechler '90 (presenter),
Christopher J. Fussner '82, James K.
Ward '83, Jack E. Donnelly '60,
Thomas D. Hobson III 79 and
catalina Cisneros '97 (presenter).
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
Back for
by Lindsey Michaels Homecoming
More lhan 500 alwnni returned
to Glendale last November for Homecoming.
Some attended workshops. Some gravitated
more toward social functions. Nearly all made at least one visit to the Pub.
Thunderbird's 1999 Homecoming Iruly offered something for everyone.
Professional opportunities included The Global Issues '99 Executive
Education program, recruiter meetings, hands-on Alumni My Thunderbird (AMTB) training, a
keynote speech by Colombian Ambassador Luis Moreno '77, Thunderbird Alumni Association TAA
Board meetings, and Thunderbird Global Business Forum presentations on credit derivatives, emer­gency
planning, and personal and corporate security. Social activities included campus tours, Pub vis­its,
student/alumni meetings, class dinners by decade, cocktail parties, a gala dinner-dance and the
alumni awards, as well as tennis, golf, the Thunderbird Balloon Classic, and a rugby tournament
"This Homecoming, more than any other in recent memory, has been about celebrating hard work
and dreams," said Joy Lubeck '86, assistant vice president of alumni relations. "We've now formally
created all four regional TAA councils, a TAA Global Board, plus launched Alumni My Thunderbird. I
can't tell you how hard we've all worked and how much these features will help alumni leverage the
worldwide Thunderbird network"
Extraordinary
Alumni Honored
Every year, Thunderbird
and the TAA honor out­standing
alumni during
Homecoming. Honorees
are pre-nominated by their
peers, selected by the
awards committee, then
formally recognized as
Global Alumni Award win­ners
during the gala dinner
dance. Major award cate­gories
are the Jonas Mayer
Outstanding Alumnus,
Distinguished Alumni, and
Rising Star. Chapter Volun­teer
Awards are also given.
This year, the School and TAA recognized six alumni
for accomplishments that embodied what it means to be a
Thunderbird. Major award recipients were Jack
Donnelly '60, Christopher Fussner '82, Bruce Harris
'83, Thomas Hobson III '79, James Ward '83, and
Fernando Farre '94. Recognized as outstanding chapter
volunteers were Beatrice Bernescut '90 of London,
England and Paris, France; Roxy Campbell '69 of Miami,
Florida; Barney Lehrer '89 of New York, New York;
Marilyn Pound '86 of Phoenix, Arizona; Caryn Sykes
'97 of San Francisco, California; and Cindy Brady '74 of
West Michigan, Michigan.
Jack Donnelly '60: Jonas Mayer
Outstanding Alumnus Award Winner
A Thunderbird Trustee for almost 10 years, Jack
Donnelly remains active in all facets of Thunderbird. He has selVed on the TAA, helped with fundrais­ing,
been a Wmterim speaker, and is an active recruiter of new students and graduates. Donnelly is
president of Bailey & Donnelly Associates, a private investment finn. He is a past president of GTE
Communications Systems Corporation and had spent seven years in Europe with ITT. Donnelly cur­rently
selVes on several telecommunications company boards.
The Jonas Mayer Outstanding Alumnus Award is the TAA's highest honor. It is presented each year
to the alumnus who best epitomizes the combination of professional, community, and Thunderbird
activity success.
Christopher Fussner '82, Bruce Harris '83, Thomas Hobson III '79, James
Ward '83: Distinguished Alumni Award winners in Entrepreneurship.
Public Sector/Government/Non-Profit, Banking & Finance, and
Marketing, respectively.
Chris Fussner is president, owner and founder of TransTechnology Pte. Ltd, a Singapore-based dis­tributor
of surface mount technology and semiconductor capital equipment. He is also owner, man­ager,
and wine merchant of Certain Cellars Pte. Ltd, which imports and distributes fme wines.
TransTechnology is a US$35 million company, which employs 100 people and maintains additional
offices in Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok, Manila, and Cebu. Certain Cellars is a US$1 million entity.
Based in Guatemala, Bruce Harris is the executive director for Latin American programs at
Covenant House, which helps more than 4,400 Latin American street children per year. He has pub­lished
several articles on the treatment of street children and has also been featured in documentaries
by the BBS and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. He held previous positions with the Save the
Children Federation and with Up With People. Harris also helped plan the Ethics session of the 1997
Thunderbird Global Business Forum.
The director of technical analysis with Merrill Lynch Europe, Tom Hobson authors Technical
Watch, which watches major global debt markets. He also maintains major corporate and private
clients throughout the U.K Before joining Merrill Lynch, Hobson was at Goldman Sachs, where he
presented market evaluation seminars throughout Europe, Asia, and North America He selVes on the
Thunderbird Archamps Board of Directors, has held several key leadership positions with the TAA,
and selVes as an active student mentor and recruiter.
Jim Ward is vice president of marketing for Lucasfilm, Ltd, where he oversaw the long awaited
global launch of Star Wars: Episode I The Phanton Menace. He also handles all worldwide marketing
of all Lucasfilm theatrical, video, and television properties. Once named one of Ad Age's Top 100
Marketers, Ward has spent 15 years in advertising, where he has spearheaded Microsoft's Wmdows '95
Visit http://alumni.my.t-bird.edu for nomination data.
(top) Colombian Ambassador Luis
Moreno '77 is interviewd by a
Univision television crew after his
keynote address at the
Thunderbird Global Business
Forum.
(below) Professor Mark Griffiths
details the use and impact of
credit derivatives in financial risk
management during an afternoon
Thunderbird Global Business Forum
session.
Mark your
calendars for
Homecoming 2000:
November 2-5
THUNDERBIRD 53 12 I 2000 29
30
Twenty-eight T -birds retumed
to campus for a special
Executive Education, alumni­only
Global Issues 'J9 program.
(center) One of the best things
about Homecoming is simply
running Into old friends and
discussing how much the world
and Thunderbird have changed.
(bottom) TAA board members
and chapter leaders are
'Wowed' by Alumni My
Thuntlerllird during a special
training session of the chapter
leaders conference.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
product launch and overseen Nike's introduction of Tiger Woods as a corporate spokesman. Ward has
long been an active supporter of Thunderbird.
1b be eligible for a Distinguished Alwnni Award, a candidate must have graduated at least ten years
ago, demonstrate excellence in one offour areas, and be involved in civic and Thunderbird activities.
Fernando Farre '94: Rising Star Award
Having spent the last three years in Argentina as a marketing manager for I:Oreal, Farre
recently transferred to I:Oreal's New York office to serve as the international marketing manager
for Ralph Lauren Fragrances. He handles the Polo, Polo Sport, and Romance brands and is work­ing
to develop new markets in Latin America, Canada, and the duty-free Americas. A past
Fullbright Scholarship recipient and Career Management
Center employee, Farre was instrumental in helping
Thunderbird orchestrate its recent successful Thunderbird
Global Business Forum in Latin America.
The Rising Star Award is given to an alumnus who graduated
less than 10 years ago but is taking his or her field by stonn.
On the Business Side: Homecoming is so
much more than fun I
Work hard. Play hard. It's a Thunderbird mandate. That's
why Thunderbird always offers educational opportunities as
a part of Homecoming. This year, in addition to its half-day
Thunderbird Global Business Forum, the School also offered
its first-ever 21/2-day alumni Executive Education course.
Called Global Issues '99, the program offered an important
global business update and attracted 28 participants. The
course got rave reviews. (Read more about it in "A Program
for Every Need," a Thunderbird Executive Education feature
on Page 17.)
The Thunderbird Global Business Forum offered insights
into how to assess and minimize professional and personal
risk globally.
"Such assessments require a lot more than hunches or
assumptions," said keynote speaker Luis Alberto Moreno '77,
Ambassador of Colombia to the United States. "They depend
upon solid research, and an understanding of the subject that
goes far beyond what you pick up in The Econamist or The
Wall Street Journal. And when you first think of Colombia,
you probably don't see it as Latin America's strongest per­forming
economy over the last several decades-which it is.
Instead, you might think about cocaine or the drug cartels, or Pablo Escobar and kidnappings. This is
inevitable-it's what you see on TV or read in the papers. But such assumptions will only get in your
way of making an educated assessment about, say, investment in Colombia-like turning away from
the booming Chicago commodities market of the 1920s because of prohibition and Al Capone."
Moreno went on to paint a picture of the 'real Colombia,' through a brief lesson in history, geogra­phy
and economics. He outlined the initiatives of the present government, political as well as eco­nomic,
and gave forum participants a sense of where Colombia is heading.
"The centerpiece of the Pastrana administration is Plan Colombia, a comprehensive strategy whose
central purpose is to strengthen and modernize the entire gamut of our institutions, at the national and
local level, " said Moreno. "Of course, our primary goal is to end the suffering that has affected too
many of our citizens and to bring hope and opportunity to those who have never had it At the same
time, we must also pay respect to the almost 200 years of dedication and pride that built the founda­tions
that have kept us prosperous even in adversity. Our present and future successes would be
unimaginable without it"
Thunderbird professor Dr. Mark Griffiths then detailed the use and impact of credit derivatives in
managing financial risk. (The full trnnscript of Moreno's speech and the PoweIpOint presentation from
Griffiths' presentation from the event can be viewed and downloaded from the Alumni My
Thunderbird intranet: http://www.alumni.my.t-bird.edu.)
Two panel discussions addressed COIpOrate and personal security. The first panel, Planning for
Emergencies, was moderated by Thunderbird professor Dr. John O'Connell, and included presenta­tions
by Pedro Ayala, director, disaster services for The American Red Cross; Brian Beeghly '96, an
international risk manager with NIKE, Inc.; and Dusty Scott '96, Thunderbird project manager and a
former U.S. Army officer. The second panel, Personal Security and Corporate Precautions, featured
Steve Novkov '69 of CIGNA International, Ken Krusenstema, president of Stand International, and
Rick Pitacco, manager of investigations for the western region of
Motorola Global Security Organization.
Class Gifts Support the Thunderbird Community
Additional Homecoming highlights included the presentation of
$70,050 by Class of '79 leaders. They had vowed to raise $100,000
from their class to help the School fund Alumni My Thunderbird.
Their initial $70,050 check represented the amount classmates had
enthusiastically pledged to date. In addition, Class of '72 leaders Ted
Fuller and Mac Messinger helped raise $35,000 from their class­mates
to purchase a world time clock for the tower of the
Thunderbird Commons. The clock pre-dedication ceremony was
held November 5.
John Cook, Annette cazenave,
Willie Cone, and Tom Hobson (at
right) present Thunderbird
President Roy A. Herberber Jr.
with a check symbolizing their
class' first donation toward the
funding of Alumni My
Thunderbird.
Joan and Ted Fuller '72 proudly
pose in front of an artisfs render­ing
of a world time clock that aass
ot '72 members donated for the
Thunderbird Commons.
Thunderbird alumni and ardent Thunderbird
Alumni Association (T AA) supporters Joy
Lubeck '86 and Chris Johnson '86 celebrate
final delivery of a TAA Global Board, four
regional T AA councils and Alumni My
Thunderbird rollout The two have worked
tirelessly during the last few years to rebuild
and strengthen the Thunderbird network.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000 31
Thooderbird Enhances Brand
Recognition in Latin America:
In Alliance with The Miami Herald Americas Conference
by Lindsey Michaels Aentinean President Carlos Menem was ushered in under tight security, seated
next to the four-star U.S. general in charge of Southern Hemisphere forces,
then introduced to an overflow crowd of nearly 500 people, who listened to
simultaneous translations in English, Spanish and Portuguese. Nearby,
nearly 100 U.S. and Latin America media jockeyed for coverage space. At other times,
attendees heard former presidents of Costa Rica and Colombia, the vice president of
Panama, The Miami Herald publisher, Governor Jeb Bush of Florida, and dozens of
major industry leaders discuss Latin American issues at the Americas Conference.
The highly acclaimed, sold-out confer­ence
was held in Miami in October and
was hosted by The Miami Herald in asso­ciation
with Thunderbird. That strategic
partnership was one of several School ini­tiatives
designed to help Thunderbird
enhance its global brand identity. Ameri­cas
Conference visibility was especially
important given that Miami is such a signif­icant
gateway between the United States
and Latin America
"Now in its third year, the Americas
Conference already is one of the top
forums in the world on Latin America and
it can definitely become the top forum of
its type in North America," said Willy
Cone '79, general manager of The Miami
Herald, and the alumnus most responsible
for getting Thunderbird involved. "This
year was by far the best conference ever
and, as our publisher says, a great deal of
the credit goes to our partners, Thunder­bird
and the Council of the Americas. "
Thunderbird both promoted the event
and received a tremendous amount of pub­licity
from it. School officials distributed
conference materials at the Thunderbird
Global Business Forums in Argentina,
Brazil, and Chile last spring. They also ran
an advertisement in Thunderbird maga­zine
and promoted the event through
alumni groups. In return, Thunderbird was
mentioned prominently on event materials,
given an exhibit booth, allowed to suggest
speakers, and offered special registration
opportunities for its alumni.
One speaker, Diego Veitia '66, a suc­cessful
entrepreneur, literally created a
'run' on Thunderbird's exhibit booth when
he told the audience that American-style
entrepreneurship and a Thunderbird edu-
32 THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000
cation were critical for Latin America's
economic prosperity. Hundreds of Thun­derbird
applications, viewbooks, alumni
magazines, and executive education and
MIMLA brochures were taken from the
booth immediately after Veitia's speech.
The School had a full team of marketing,
administration, executive education, devel­opment,
and alumni relations
personnel onsite to handle such
demand.
Thunderbird also hosted a
Latin American alumni reunion,
a Thunderbird Alumni Associa­tion
(TAA) Latin America
Regional Council meeting, and a
TAA Chapter Leaders' work­shop
immediately after the con­ference.
Then Argentinean
President Menem is
Keynote Speaker
Argentina's outgoing Presi­dent
Carlos Menem waxed
poetic as he began his retro­spective
keynote speech,
saying, " I am not Cervantes;
I'm Don Quixote." Menem
meant that he saw himself as
the dreamer, not as the per­son
charged with ultimately
judging his accomplish­ments-
as the person who
thought up creative solutions to the terri­ble
hyperinflation and other problems
Argentina faced when he took office.
Abruptly changing the tone, Menem later
lifted the room to laughter by humorously
holding up a copy of his autobiography
and shamelessly promoting it.
Menem was the keynote speaker at the
Americas Conference. He spoke in Span­ish,
apologizing for not speaking English,
French or any other language. He was
warm, self-effacing, and obviously admired
by the overwhelming majority of the more
than 500 people who jammed the Miami
Biltmore's main ballroom for his address.
Menem, whose presidential term ended
in December, said he is proud of what he
and his team had accomplished. He
believed they had analyzed the situation,
then plugged away at needed change.
While he said he wasn't leaving Argentina
in perfect shape, he felt he was leaving it
with a stable economy and strong
prospects.
(top) Former Colombian President Cesar Gaviria
is interviewed by a Spanish language television
station. (left) T-bird's heavily-visited conference
booth became a gathering place for alumni
between conference sessions. (right) Alumni
storm the reunion registration table.
First Latin American Alumni
Reunion Follows Conference
Some came to learn. Some came to play.
Some came to work. All got to reconnect
with Thunderbird when the School hosted
its first-ever Latin American Alumni
Reunion, which began at the conclusion of
the Americas Conference.
More than 50 Thunderbird alumni
attended that two-day conference, hearing
addresses by Argentinean President Car­los
Menem, former Costa Rican President
Rafael Calderon, former Columbian Presi­dent
Cesar Gaviria, and many others.
Reunion attendees began arriving at the
beautiful Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables
even before the conference ended. By 7
p.m. Friday, more than 170 alumni and
friends had assembled at a welcome
reception near the Biltmore's famous pool,
where Thunderbird President Roy A.
Herberger, Jr. offered a brief State of the
School address. The T-birds then departed
for various restaurants, only to reunite
back at the Biltmore for late night
Baccardi-sponsored beverages.
Saturday found reunion-goers shopping
at the famous Sawgrass Mills outlet stores,
cruising on Biscayne Bay, touring South
Beach's Art Deco, playing tennis or golf, or
swimming at the Biltmore's pool. But
Saturday also found two T-bird groups
hard at work indoors. The first was Thun­derbird's
newly formed TAA Latin America
Regional Council, which met the entire
day. The second was a group of TAA Chap­ter
Leaders, which met for half a day.
The Regional Council spent Saturday
morning learning all about the new Thun­derbird
from five senior School officials:
President Herberger, who discussed Thun­derbird's
new goals and education trends;
John Seybolt, senior vice president, Acade­mic
Affairs, who discussed the school's
expanded, more structured curriculum;
Bud Robyn, senior vice president, Execu­tive
Education, who talked about the
School's lifelong career training; Execu­tive-
In-Residence John Willie, who pre­viewed
the School's new branding plan;
and Jenny St. John, vice president, Exter­nal
Affairs, who discussed media rankings
and fund raising. Council members also got
a hands-on demonstration of Alumni My
Thunderbird (AMTB). They spent the
afternoon forming their council infrastruc­ture
and setting initial goals.
Thunderbird now sponsors four regional
(above left) Diego Veitia '66 created a run on
Thunderbird's booth by telling the audience that
Thunderbird's training was critical. (above) T-birds
Michael Lee '92 Hector Gorosabel '87, Fernando
Farre '94 and friends enjoy the reunion's final night
event.
(left) Julio Morriberon '71 of Peru, Maria Cedeno '93
of Venezuela, and Cedeno's mother, Ursula Quero,
enter the Reunion's welcoming reception.
(right) Miami Herald Publisher Alberto Ibargiien
and Roy Herberger celebrate the formation of a
mutually beneficial partnership.
TAA councils, plus a global board to pro­vide
better, more focused representation in
each region, since regions often face differ­ent
issues at different times. Council mem­bers
serve as liaisons between alumni and
the School. Their primary responsibility
involves reconnecting alumni in each
region to one another, to alumni in other
regions, and to Thunderbird. By so doing,
they also help Thunderbird provide the
types of lifelong services its alumni need.
Given that Chapter Leaders in each city
also will play a critical role in Thunder­bird's
alumni reconnection strategy, the
School also sponsored a Latin America
Chapter Leaders Workshop in Miami.
Eight leaders attended the half-day event,
dialoguing with School officials, trying out
AMTB, and forging friendships and strate­gies.
Thunderbird now boasts 150 alumni
chapters, more than 60 of which have been
formed in the past year.
Alumni interested in forming new chap­ters,
or strengthening existing ones, can
now obtain materials and help online
through AMTB in the TAA section.
Visit the alumni online community at
http://alumnLmy.t-bird.edu. •
Willy Cone '19 may be reached at
wcone@herald.com
The Miami
Herald's 2000
Americas
Conference will
be held
September
14-15 in Miami
in partnership
with
Thunderbird.
THUNDERBIRD 53 121 2000 33
lj,lIlitil'r/Jli'ti I \l'lllflll' I r/llulfioll Are you a
GLOBAL BUSINESS
champion?
Not all companies have Global Business Champions­visionaries
who realize that proactively building global business
competencies inside their company's workforce is the key to
accelerated profits in a world economy. If you see yourself as a Global
Business Champion (manyT'birds do), here is a way to turn vision into reality:
Pick out one or two people in your company, and encourage them to find out more about
Thunderbird Executive Education's Global Management Programs for the Year 2000.
Simply tear out this page and hand it to them, or send them an e-mail encouraging them to visit
Thunderbird's mb site for global managers (www.t-bird.edu/execed/GLOBAL).
www.t-bird.edu/execed/global _:HEH~Eru~~U~;E~~OL
OF INTERNATIONAL MANAGEMENT
Executive Education
'48-'69
Sigmund Liberman '48 is now semi­retired,
living in Carrollton, TX with his
wife Lee. They have 5 grandchildren
and have traveled to Europe 3 times.
Thomas (Tom) B. Birch '51 is VP of
Investor ReI. at Blue Moon Capital in
Costa Mesa, CA. Jorge Carrera '51 is
with Transerco Inti. Ltd. in Phoenix, AZ.
Grant A. Settlemier '58 is Sr. VP at
Salomon, Smith Barney in San Fran­cisco.
He is still racing sailboats for St
Francis Yacht Club and travelling.
Robert "Bob" L. Fife '59 is now
retired and living in
Sarasota, FL. Glen H.
Glad '63 has retired
from Firestone Tire
and Rubber. He and
his wife Laura live in
Lakeland, FL. Charles
A. Lagergren '64 is an Inti. Training
Mgr. at Federal Mogul in St Louis, MO.
Clayson (Claris) W. Lyman'64 is
self-employed in Preventive Health Care
with RexalJ Showcase Inti. in Glendora,
CA. Phillip E. Wilken '65 is Pres. of
LCS Service in Rochester, MI. Joseph
J. Gunnell '66 owns GSI (Gunnell
Services, Inc.), a Financial Consulting
Firm in Ingleside, lL. Peter X. Habn
'66 is a Sales Rep. with the Sutherland
Group in Rochester, NY. Perry S.
Melton, Jr. '66 is Oir. of Ops. with
Maxiswitch, Inc. in Tucson, AZ. Robert
S. Eichfeld '67 is the Managing Oir. of
Saudi American Bank in Riyadh, Saudi
Arabia Barry M. Beyer '68 is selling
power generation units packaged by
S&S Energy Products in Houston, TX.
John E. Massae '68 is an Inspector
with Index Research Services, Inc. in
Redding, CA. William "Bill" C.
Mattison '68 is a Sr. VP at Bank of
America in Miami, FL. John J . Verity
'68 is OwnerIMgr. of Pacific Steel
Fabricators Inc. in Boise, ID. Paul V.
Von Schoeler '68 is Pres. of Admin.
Systems Inc. in Columbus, OH. Fred D.
Bloom '69 recently moved to
Sacramento where he is Oir., Asia­Pacific
with GMI West LLC. Steven
C. Burrell '69 is a Process Plant
Contracting and Project Oev.
Advisor in Beaconsfield, England.
Carl N. Holmes '69 is an Office
Ops. Mgr. with Ford Motor
Company in Carrollton, TX.
Manfred L. Locher '69 is semi­retired
and recently moved with his
wife Angelika from Munich to the
Bavarian countryside. Barry
Soloff '69 is now with Ouracell Inc.
in Bethel, CT.
'70-'75
Charles E. Johanson '70 is Gen.
CounsellSecretary with Telegroup
Inc. in Fairfield, lA. Carol
(Swiston) Kelley '70 and her hus­band
James live in San Diego, CA.
Pavel F. Kriz '70 is a mkt commu­nications
consultant for the automo­tive
industry for the InterCom
-
PDATES
ONE WORLD. ONE CAMP
Wondering where the kids would go during the summer
break? Join the variegated group of children from all over
the world at Terry Shand's '72 World Sports Camp in
Rhode Island! This is the only summer camp that offers an opportu­nity
for boys and girls between the ages of 10 and 16 to come
together to experience expert sports coaching in basketball, golf, ten­nis
and football (soccer), improve English language skills, travel to
amusement and water parks, go white-water rafting or sightseeing in
New England, and participate in inter-camp sports competition.
Shand's passion for sports and love for coaching merged with his
desire to be involved in
international business and management. That is how the World
Sports Camp concept came about. Every summer campers from more
than 17 countries come together to play sports in a safe, exciting and
fun-filled environment.
"I truly love what I do," says Shand. "Being able to orchestrate the
getting along of many individuals from diverse backgrounds is very
satisfying." No camper from abroad has ever been turned away due
to the lack of funds. Shand and his team are committed to finding a
solution in each case when a camper wants to attend the World
Sports Camp program.
HI did not want to become a player in my own backyard of the busi­ness
world. Instead, I wanted to make the world my backyard!" Shand
said. "I truly desire to see all children, all peoples of the world come
together in a unified effort to improve commerce and world peace.
For me, sports was a good place to start. Children all over the world
want the same: to learn, play in a safe environment, and have fun.
Check out Shand's Web site at www.worldsportscamp.com
Tatiana Poliakova
Group in Prague. Roger H. Youel '70
is a Mgr. with GE Capital in Franklin,
TN. Robert F. Ainslie '71 is Pres. of
Sino-American Investments in Encinitas,
CA. Francisco Enriquez '71 is Pres.
and CEO of U.S. Purification Systems de
Mexico SA de C.V. in Tijuana, Mexico.
Thomas W. Lehmer '71 is Chairman
and CEO at World Web Markets in
Anaheim, CA. Glenn A. Smith,